The War Of The Bands
by The Brod Road
Summary: What happens when Vlad accidentally releases some new allies to try and defeat Danny? Somebody's world's about to be rocked! Danny/Ember. PP didn't happen. Semi-crossover. With what? You'll see. Random plot bunny, so read and review, please!
1. An Unexpected Gig

Author's Note: Alright, people. This is a random-as-hell plot bunny that came to my mind and I wasn't sure whether to give it a shot. But a part of me keeps going "But it's such a good crossover idea! Use it!". I guess this is the kind of fanfic author I am sometimes: Writing stories about franchises that end up heavily referencing other franchises. Some might spin that as a lack of originality, but others might look at the positive spin of "Hey, these two particular things mashed together? That's new."

But whatever. Let's see what happens, eh? Hopefully, this is likable.

Obviously, a Danny/Ember fic and, for the sake of having a major villain be the one that starts events, Phantom Planet hasn't happened. So, Alternate Universe, I guess. I know what some fans of my work might say. "Why don't you put this as part of your Comical Relations universe?". I had thought of that, but then I also thought that this particular plot may take what's there and throw it waaaaay into left field. Lol.

Disclaimer: Anything used here is NOT my property, so there.

The War Of The Bands

Prologue: An Unexpected Gig

Vlad Masters was not a happy mayor of Amity Park. Oh, he was content with the city as a whole. Crime was low, he seemed to be accepted by the populous, he was still quite rich, and his powers made him still superior to most. However, there was the crutch. "Most". Not "all". If it were "all", he would have the woman that eluded him for so long, as well as perhaps something as beneficial as control of something bigger than just one mere city.

But no. He hadn't won 'the big one'. Not yet, anyway. If it wasn't for that pesky Daniel and his two meddling friends… Correction: THREE meddling friends, if you count the failed experiment that was Danielle. No, wait, it had to be four friends, now that the Red Huntress seemed to have taken it easy on the younger halfa. Now that just wasn't fair! He had equipped Ms. Gray himself with his own tech! Shows that you can't trust youth anymore…

Five. Yes, Daniel had five allies overall now, since things had taken a strange turn recently. Of all people, why did Ember McLain suddenly start dating the petulant child? Last he had heard, they were rivals for the longest time, fighting over control of the city (much like he himself does against the brat). All the sudden, she's all over him like Vlad on Green Bay Packers merch! He failed to understand what an abusive now-former boyfriend had to do with anything. If Ember wanted someone better than Skulker, she could do a hell of a lot better than some immature virgin goody-two-shoes, in Vlad's strict opinion. But that detail matters not to the current situation, other than Ms. McLain being an added thorn to his side.

Currently, Vlad was within his office in City Hall, perusing his many books, both ancient and somewhat-recent, all having to deal with the supernatural and the occult. He was looking for something that would be a key to finally putting down Danny Phantom. So far, the research proved to be not much more than mere folly. Understandably, his frustration grew.

And it was that frustration that proved to be both his blessing and his downfall…

"Oh butter-biscuits! Another goose chase! Can't anything be of decent use? Either it turns out to be a myth or there's horrible side effects! Jeez, what happened to the idea of black magic that isn't a double-edged sword?" he ranted aloud to himself. Furious, he clutched an old tome and quickly skimmed through it impatiently, his eyes landing on a random page. "Hah. Like this thing here. I bet this one's no good either. 'Malicious lords, I invoke your dark forces in declaring myself god of this realm! As the pawn is present, may your ritual commence and may the Dark Purveyors appear now!'. Bah. As if it were that simple!" Vlad snarled, tossing the book aside.

As soon as the book hit the ground, the incantation he had so uttered in jest took effect. There came a sound of rumbling, low at first but growing louder, even though there wasn't an earthquake or anything. The discarded book burst open, splayed to the very page that Vlad had randomly selected. A dark light emanated from the book. Vlad gaped wide-eyed. Was it really that simple after all?

Before he could think more, what appeared to be five large orbs burst forth from the book, each a different color and all feeling like power itself. They were much more than orbs of power, though…

"Eh? What's this? This guy's certainly dif'rent from the skraeling that summoned us before!"

"Like, far out. Some old dude calls us. Is he a narc? If so, harsh…"

"At. Least. We. Get. To. Bring. The. Funk. Just OOOONE MORE TIIIIME!"

"Still, what's this ass-licker want?! He better have a good reason or I'm shitting down his throat!"

"Hey, slow your engines, man. I'm sure things'll be rockin' out soon enough."

Vlad was speechless. He had unwittingly summoned these… Dark Purveyors. And here he had thought it was just another regional psycho-babble! And, unless his ghostly senses were misleading him, they were quite powerful indeed! Not as powerful as Pariah Dark, of course. But still.

"Hallo, old warrior! Ye be needing us for a good pillaging or som'thin'?!" the blue orb said, sounding like some sort of old pirate or something. That snapped Vlad out of his stupor.

"Ah! Well… Yes, I guess. I didn't really mean to just summon you folks like this, but…"

"Now. Hold. Up. One. Minute, player!" interrupted the purple orb, sounding very robotic, yet human. "You. Mean. You. Didn't. Know. Who. We. Are?"

"Sorry. Can't say that I've heard of you. I was researching…" Vlad was once again interrupted.

"That's. Uncool! But. I've. Been. Wanting. To. Bust. A. Move. Anyway. So. What's. The. Game?" the robo-orb asked.

"Well, I've been trying to take over this city completely, but there's this… superhero… in my way." Vlad quickly summed up, spitting out the word 'superhero' in disgust.

"Mercenary work!? You called us for MERCENARY SHIT?!" exclaimed the red orb, extremely loud and shrill.

"Uhh… It'll mean lots of destruction and chaos?" Vlad offered, suddenly afraid that he might have pissed off the wrong supernatural forces.

"ALLLLRIIIIIGHT THEN!" The red orb bounced up and down, as if celebrating.

"Ahem…" The green orb, apparently female, coughed. "Chaos and destruction may be the bee's knees for some of us. But I'd much rather just… veg out and play my tunes, man… Know a place where I can share the love with others, boss dude?"

Vlad simply turned his attention to the four other orbs. "Is this one some sort of pacifist or something? Why would a force of evil want to 'spread love'?" he asked of them. Did every team have to have a goofball of sorts in it?

The yellow orb chuckled. "Don't lose your cool, man. She has her own way of swingin'."

Somehow, that failed to reassure Vlad about the green one's credentials. Perhaps it was the yellow one's terminology. Swinging? There was only one meaning that went with 'sharing love'… But more pressing matters were at hand.

"Uhh… Yes, well, whatever… Anyways…" Vlad clicked on a projector, which displayed a recent picture of Danny Phantom and Ember McLain in action. "These two are proving to be major roadblocks in my path to domination. If any of you five can put a stop to them and anybody that helps them, well… I'm sure the mayhem you'll cause along the way might be worth the effort."

"He's just a wee skraeling! The wench, though… Yeah, I'd certainly like to pillage that village, if ye know what I jest." the blue orb chuckled gruffly. Somehow, his statement was followed by an animalistic growling.

"This. Will. Be. My. Funkiest. Play. Ever!" bleeped the purple orb. For some reason, Vlad kept picturing the owner of this voice as some sort of African-American stereotype. But that couldn't be. Naaaah… It couldn't. Could it?

"Yes, yes…" Vlad muttered. "Now go forth. Let's see what you can do! I'll be watching…"

"Ha, such a narc thing to say, you narc…" giggled the green orb as the five took off, phasing through the walls and out into the city.

Standing in front of the wide windows overlooking the city, Vlad couldn't help but wonder… 'What the hell have I let loose anyway?'

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** And there's the prologue to test the waters. For those that have figured it out already and going "What the hell?" (and those that haven't yet), yes, this is bringing in the 5 bosses/villains of the video game, Lollipop Chainsaw. I figured that, since the Dark Purveyors are all an un-living parody of different eras of Music, I figure that they'd be perfect foes for a Danny/Ember fic (or any other sort of Ember-centric story). Thus, the story's title, for one thing.

Sooo….. Good idea? Bad idea? Indifferent? Feel free to share your thoughts!


	2. Getting Punk-Rock'd

Author's Note: Wow! People are liking this one already. That's real nice of you all. Thanks!

But anyways, for those unfamiliar with the material I'm using for this one, Lollipop Chainsaw is a tongue-in-cheek zombie hack-n-slash video game where your main character is a hot blonde cheerleader babe who happens to belong to a family of zombie hunters (That last part should sound kinda familiar to ol' Danny, right?).

Fun fact: Juliet (your character) happens to be voiced by Ember herself, Tara Strong. Irony!

But for this story, I'm only bringing in the 5 main bosses/villains. Why, you ask? Simple. As I briefly mentioned in Chapter 1, each of these 5 Dark Purveyors is a walking, talking, murdering parody of different significant eras/genres of Music, with related destructive powers to match. Thus, my idea. Danny/Ember vs. Dark Purveyors, music-powers vs music-powers.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything, no shows, no games, no songs. ALSO, rated T because of 1) what's implied at the beginning of this chapter and 2) more importantly, the first Purveyor happens to be the most vulgar one. (Trying to keep everyone in-character, after all.)

Chapter 1: Getting Punk-Rock'd

Danny Fenton was sleeping. But not just any sleep. No, this was a sleep of pure contentment. No worries or stress plaguing the young 16-year-old, despite school life and his…ahem… "extracurricular side job". Just peace and quiet. Of course, the fact that his immortally-undead girlfriend, Ember McLain, was practically wrapped around his body in her own state of slumber could probably be a great factor in this. Her flaming ponytail had shrunk down to a little nub of fire-hair in her sleep, mirroring her current inactiveness while creating a dim glow as if her head was a living nightlight.

Of course, like all things, it had to come to an end sometime. But not the way Danny expected. As 8 o'clock rolled around, Danny's phone went off.

"_Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lolli-lolli_

_Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lolli-lolli_

_Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lolli-lolli_

_LOLLIPOP!"_

Danny clicked off his phone alarm, confused. Last he knew, he hadn't set an alarm for today. It's a Saturday. Not to mention, why an old-school song like that anyway? An amused groan came from his right. "Mmm… Morning, Baby-Pop. Or perhaps I should call you my Lollipop now, after what I did to you last night." she said, with a smirk that Danny knew all too well. Mischief personified. Danny blushed, remembering very well what she did.

"Umm, really?" he stammered. Leave it to the 'Boy Scout' to still be shy about it AFTER his first time with anything sexual.

"Well, I never thought the idea of a 'meat-flavored lollipop' would ever be enticing either, but… well… what're double-entendres for?" replied Ember before she gave his cheek a playful lick. Danny flinched and blushed again when he suddenly felt a slender hand grope a little too far south underneath the blankets. "Mmm… There's my lolly." In that moment, Danny once again thanked God that his house had soundproof walls.

"Ember!" At his flustered outcry, Ember let go and drew back, chuckling to herself. "Yeah, yeah. I'm only playing, Dipstick. Even I know not to go too far here in your family's house. Last night was enough for now. But…" she paused, staring into his eyes with a look of mock-seriousness (her grin gave it away). "One of these days, we're going to put your morning wood to good use."

"Right…" Danny said, smirking. There was always the idea of going to her realm. The halfa didn't know if he was being more than a good boyfriend to her lately or if she just naturally gets this horny. They were merely two months into their relationship, for crying out loud. On the other hand, the two did bond a lot more than they themselves thought they would, considering the odd way they got together. Very odd, indeed, seeing that Danny just randomly asked her out… at the Christmas Truce party… after he had saved her from a drunk-n-horny Skulker who she had broken up with months before and had resorted to stalking her.

He knew it might've been rotten timing, what with Skulker's bullshit. She figured 'Eh, what the hell?'. Not a bad decision on their parts so far. Sure, they clashed on some things (like her penchant of stealing music-related goods), but for the most part, they had plenty in common once they got past their old rivalry. Back to the present…

Danny had just finished getting dressed, having given Ember a bit of a peep show in the process. "So, any reason you wanted to wake up now?" he asked curiously. Normally, he'd naturally wake up at 9-ish. Ember smiled.

"Well, I kinda thought we'd go out to breakfast. Doesn't need to be anywhere special. Perhaps a diner or a Denny's." she answered, pulling on her tank top (no bra, mind you).

"Aaah, so the great Ember can be soft sometimes." Danny teased as he fidgeted with his wallet and keys, cramming them in his pants pocket as a silent indicator of agreeing with her idea. Ember zipped up her skintight pants.

"Listen, Dipstick, even I can get a little sentimental now and then. Besides, it is close to the middle of February. I would think that you'd be having sentimental thoughts about a certain day coming up." she snickered. "Especially when it comes to the gift you might give me, which I'm sure will be awesome." she added, her smirk widening to a grin as she watched him falter and sweat a little. Yep, he forgot the…no, wait…Ah, yes, classic. She was sure the poor boy was stumped on what to get her for Valentine's.

"Yeah, Flame… I'll get you something special. I promise." he answered, somewhat subdued. 'If I could even figure out what a good gift could be… It's gotta be something amazing.' he thought. Ember clicked her tongue in that well-known 'tsk' fashion. "Now, now. Don't make promises you'll end up being unable to deliver." She said, patting her boyfriend on the head. "You've been real great to me. Never thought I'd say that…but here I am. So, I'm not gonna get all bitchy if the gift is small. Just if it's lame."

Danny's Translation: 'You know my interests, so stick to that. Also, you know I'm lobbing you an easy hit, right?'

"Thanks, Ember. I'm sure you'll like what I get ya."

Ember's Translation: 'Yes, Ember. Thanks for the help. I owe you one gigantic, mega-sized favor.' And she would keep that in mind, too.

That being said, they left Danny's room and ventured out for breakfast.

Downstairs, Madeline Fenton had just finished preparing her own breakfast, being the early bird that she tended to be. Standard Fenton Pancakes and Fenton Eggs. It may have taken extra time to prepare due to the added step of 'Make sure they're not alive', but it was worth it. As she was about to sit down at the table to eat, she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairway. Smiling, she wandered out to the living room, curious as to who else might be up. She walked in just as her son and his interesting girlfriend descended the last stair. A part of her felt the urge to initiate another bout of research upon the pale green/blue specter, but clearly the two teens had their own plan, as Danny was putting on his shoes and going for his jacket.

The two stubborn women had worked out a compromise, thanks to Danny putting his foot down and playing negotiator. Ember would allow Maddie to do whatever kind of studying about ghosts she wanted as long as it did no harm to Ember herself (which obviously included keeping the more violence-prone Jack away from her at all times). In turn, Maddie would allow her to date Danny and hang around Fenton Works whenever she wanted. Upon accepting the fact that that Ember had meant no harm (unlike what the rock diva's previous reputation would have everyone believe), the Fenton matriarch partially saw the experience as an opportunity to actually get to know a ghost on a personal level and see just how similar to humans one can be. A social experiment for science, if you will. And to think that all this resulted because Ember refused to disguise herself as a "no-name human" when Danny introduced her to the family…

"Morning, kids! My, you're up early on a Saturday. What's up?" the mother asked in her usual chipper tone. Ember smiled at Maddie. "Morning, Mrs. Fenton. I just thought it'd be nice if Baby-Pop here would treat me to breakfast." the ghost explained, her tone somewhat different from her usual brash attitude. Was it Maddie or was Ember positively glowing? No, wait, it's her hair… She's always glowing. Was she glowing more than usual?

"That's lovely, dears. Would this be a date?" Maddie asked curiously. Danny slid his jacket on and pulled out his winter hat. "Well, it could be. We got the whole day free so, if we're up to it, we might as well hit the town after breakfast." Danny answered. Truthfully, Ember would probably be the one choosing where to go. Thankfully, Danny didn't mind the concept of 'woman on top', both figuratively and literally.

"Well, I hope you have fun, you two. Don't get into any trouble now." Maddie cheerfully exclaimed. Little did anybody know what this day had in store for them…...

Danny (Phantom) and Ember were flying at a leisurely pace in the direction of a nice diner, their bodies next to each other. Danny resisted the urge to hold her hand in this situation, Ember always having some sort of wariness against anything that's "too sappy". The halfa figured that most of that particular quirk had to do with her spiritual obsession with being a hardcore rock woman. But neither teen didn't mind finding ways to work around that. Abusive ex-boyfriends certainly had a way of instilling a lesson that there was such a thing as "too hardcore".

"Hmm… Hey, Baby-Pop. You think your mom knows?" Ember asked out of the blue.

"Knows what?"

"About what we did last night." the diva nonchalantly answered, causing Danny to blush. "Wha? I don't see how. We have soundproofing." he said, somewhat flustered. The last thing he needed was a lecture from his mom and dad about teenage sex.

"Hmm, I dunno. The way she was looking at me… Ya ever hear how women can tell when a woman's had some?" she asked. Danny gulped. Could his mom tell? Really? It's not like they went all the way. It was just a blowjob. (They both did have standards, after all. Two months into the relationship?)

His silence became deafening. "Aww… Poor Dipstick's scared. Hehehe… Don't worry about it. I doubt she figured that out. Otherwise, I bet she'd be all over us about it." she said, snickering. Sometimes, her boyfriend could be so awkward. Then again, he was just an average teenage boy turned superhero, not like her last couple of relationships where age definitely didn't matter and they've "seen it all".

The couple's thoughts were interrupted by Danny's ghost sense going off. "Aw, crap… Why now? Couldn't we have a nice morning?"

"Maybe it's just ol' Boxy. Can you tell where?"

Danny tried to sense where the disturbance was coming from. At first, nothing. Then, an abruptly massive aura appeared in his range. And headed right for them. "Uhh, Em? Get that guitar ready. Whoever it is, it's coming right for us!"

As if on cue, before either teen could see anybody, a scream bellowed from their right. A loud, shrill scream that was apparently so powerful that, like a live-action comic book, they could see giant red letters flying toward them, spelling out the scream. "FUCK YEAH!" Instinctively, the duo dodged the energy-made letters, covering their ears from the extreme volume.

"What the hell?! Argh!" Ember asked, surprised that somebody's actually louder than her. She was answered by laughter. The heroes looked toward the source of the noise. Standing on a nearby rooftop of an apartment complex was a lanky being, his head given somewhat more noticeability by his red mohawk of impossibly-tall spikes of hair. If Danny's ghost sense didn't make it clear enough, the enemy's greying skin tone and sunken facial features was a 'dead' giveaway of his zombified status, not to mention the blood stains on his lips, nose, and slightly above his right eyebrow. His attire couldn't be any more "street punk" if it tried. A ragged band shirt, red plaid pants with a studded belt, an open dirty leather jacket, an Anarchy necklace, dusty boots, armbands, and a microphone stand that looked more like a spiky melee weapon than a piece of concert equipment.

"Hahahaha! So, I get to destroy you two, huh?! You DOUCHEBAGS! You couldn't even lace up my BOOTS!" the strange opponent cackled, even speaking as loud as possible.

"Who the hell do you think you are anyway?" Danny asked, annoyed already. And he thought Technus' voice was grating…

"Me? What, ME?! I'm your executioner, BITCH! You landed on the wrong side of somebody's tracks, so I'm here to totally napalm your asses…" At this point, the lanky ghoul brought his mic right to his mouth, his crimson energy flaring. "STRAIGHT TO HELL!" Again, giant red letters made of dark energy shot out, spelling out what he had screamed as they rapidly shot at Danny and Ember, who scrambled out of the way, a couple of renegade letters nicking them painfully. Nearby windows shattered from the sheer volume of his outburst and citizens below started to panic, the latter being a normal occurrence during a ghost attack.

"Alright, douchenozzle… You think you can outperform me? I'm Ember McLain, Queen of Rock!" Ember declared, her guitar drawn and ready, her power knob tuned to the Skull icon. The punk looked unimpressed.

"Ha…HAHAHAHHAA! Queen?! HA! I'll see how royal you actually are when I use your spine as a guitar neck, gutter slut! I'll show you who rules the roost around here! KNEEL BEFORE ZED!" he bellowed, unleashing more deadly letters, which went random directions, hitting walls, cars, and almost hit a few fleeing citizens.

"Don't you mean 'Kneel before Zod', you moron?" Danny retorted, firing an ecto-beam at the psychotic opponent, who rapidly sidestepped it with a slight burst of speed.

"Ugh… It's a play on words! My name is Zed! ZED!" With a snap of his fingers, Zed suddenly made speakers appear on all the rooftops surrounding Danny and Ember. Loud punk music started playing as Zed was suddenly standing on top of a vertical stack of speakers. "Eat MY music, cocksuckers!" With that, he started headbanging his head around in circles to the abrasive music, his hair somehow crackling with energy and creating sharp energy discs which were flung toward the two heroes like erratic frisbees.

"Ugh! Is throwing shit all he can do?!" Ember griped, dodging a disc before strumming her guitar in turn and sending an energy fist toward the stack of speakers with Zed on it. Before the blast hit and destroyed the speaker stack, Zed leapt up high, over the two heroes, and landed on the speaker on an opposing rooftop. Danny seemed to have little problem blasting the energy discs out of existence, but was immediately besieged by a swarm of flying red "A"s as Zed let loose with a long, loud shriek into his mic.

The battle seemed to have quickly devolved into a monotonous war of attrition, as Zed would either fling energy buzzsaws with his mohawk or scream in their general direction before having to leap from speaker to speaker to avoid an ecto-blast from either hero. Zed was thrilled. These conformists couldn't last forever. Conformists never did! They always fell to the chaos of Anarchy! It'd be no different for these two pukes! Or so he thought.

The city block couldn't take much more damage at this rate. Danny and Ember had to stop this newcomer and fast! But how? Once again, Zed dodged an attack, but in the process, the last speaker he had was destroyed. He knew this, though. Instead of landing on a rooftop, his enhanced agility quickly propelled him toward the floating duo, jabbing the sharp-ended legs of his mic stand at Ember. She barely dodged the deadly legs, but not Zed himself who crashed into her with a vicious tackle, sending both of them to the ground. Danny flew down and landed nearby, just in time to see Ember quickly roll out of the way of Zed's follow-up downward jab with his mic-"spear".

"That's it! Roll on the filthy ground like the cum-dumpster you are!" Zed cackled as he kept trying to impale the rolling and squirming Ember with the three prongs of his mic stand. He was interrupted with an ecto-blast to his back, causing him to reel forward in pain and letting Ember get away enough to get to her feet and grasp her guitar. "Ooooh…. Nice shot, fly boy… Too bad that's your LAST!" he said, suddenly not there anymore. In an instant, Zed was right in Danny's face, swinging a rotting fist across the halfa's face, knocking him down to the ground. Adrenaline pumping, Danny got right back up only to narrowly avoid Zed's mic-stand thrust, using the spike-surrounded microphone itself this time. Danny grabbed the neck of the stand before Zed could pull it back and used the distraction to throw an ecto-powered punch of his own in Zed's face, knocking him down and forcing him to let go of the killer mic. Zed rolled and got to one knee just in time to see….. Danny tapping the mic itself with a finger, saying "Test… Test… Is this on? Check one, check two!". The amplified thumps of more tapping could be heard. "Test…."

"Grrrr…! GIMME MY MIC!" Without the deadly accessory, Zed's voice was downgraded to the level of a normal person's shouting. Still, it was impressively loud for a dead guy.

"So this dead guy comes at me and thinks he's all that, right? So I turn to him and say, 'hey, man. It's nothing to lose your head over!'!" Danny said, clearly using the mic time to mock-perform a stand-up routine. Just as he said the last part, with Zed's attention completely turned to Danny, a purple guitar was leveled on Zed's head from behind, vertically like an axe. Ember's guitar. The punk-rocker's head was cleaved in two, but he could still talk.

"Agh… Wha… But… Not again… Ugh… Oooh… I'm not done…. screaming…" Zed gurgled as Ember withdrew her 'axe' to watch the two halves of a skull begin to flop apart. But then, Zed's hands suddenly came up and grabbed the two split sides. "Heh… That was good… Haha… Ok, I'll upgrade my opinion of you from 'shit-eating butt plugs'…" he paused while his hands pushed the halves of his head back together, the mortal wound gradually healing until his head was whole again. "…to 'stubborn shit-eating butt plugs' because you're both fucked now! Hahahaha!"

"Wha? He can heal too!?" Ember said. Danny took his stolen weapon and raised it in a fighting stance, as ready as he could be for any sudden bursts of speed. He read about The Flash, but he didn't think he had to fight anybody like The Flash, that's for sure. Ember took a chance and started playing her guitar, causing an energy wave of rock to stream toward Zed, who again sidestepped it with his speed. Danny charged in and swung his new weapon, which Zed intercepted…by letting some of the microphone's spikes hit him and get buried deep in his side before Zed grabbed the mic neck and engaged in a tug-of-war with Danny.

"Heh… You can't dominate Punk-Rock without being able to take a lot of pain, conformist! Now, GIMME!" Zed barked, trying to get Danny to let go of the mic. "Nobody likes a mic hog, pisser!"

Danny's response was to just shoot him point-blank in the face with an ecto-blast, Zed's head reeling back from the impact. His body stumbled back and with it, the mic stand and with that, Danny, who really didn't want the enemy to have his weapon back. Digging his heels in the ground, the halfa gave one hard tug, resulting in the sick squelching sound of metal being forcibly withdrawn from flesh and another shriek of pain from Zed. The punk zombie's torso had quite a gap in his right side now.

Ember took a chance to get right up behind Zed and play some good ol' Rock music, the noise causing him to ironically cover his own ears as Ember's power battered him all over, almost like Ember herself was a grenade constantly going off. "AAAAHH! STOP IT, SHIT NUGGET! Sounds like it was written by some tycoon in a monkey suit!" Zed cried in pain. When Danny looked at Ember, she nodded her head as if signaling him to do something. With the mic in hand, he knew what he had to do.

His mind took a second to be thankful that everyone in this unfortunate city block had already evacuated the area, especially with what was about to happen. Then again, Zed had already done a good job breaking every window and battering every car and building… And so, he put the stolen super-mic to his mouth and unleashed the Ghostly Wail just as Ember stopped playing and flew upward.

If Zed's energy letters were destructive, Danny's bright-green ecto-"A"s were devastating, the letters smashing and crashing into the weakened zombie like a tidal wave upon a rocky shore. His flesh wound, having not had a chance to heal over, was forced wider and wider. Zed's ears began bleeding severely as his own scream of agony was drowned out by the halfa's banshee-like wail.

Soon enough, the sheer force of Danny's amplified Ghostly Wail proved to be too much for Zed's physical form, his torso wound having been forced open from one side right to the other by the barrage of green "A"s, ripping him in two and rendering his legs useless. Danny knew to stop when Zed flopped to the ground. For a moment, he marveled at the fact that, unlike his normal Ghostly Wail, which usually affected everything within hearing range of it, this version of it was able to be aimed in a specific pinpointed direction to cause severe damage. Must be the microphone… Thank goodness for small favors. He didn't need extra property damage on his head.

Upon closer inspection of Zed's fallen form, his head seemed to be somewhat crushed from the sheer force of sound that Danny caused. Not 'unrecognizable' crushed, but it definitely looked more sunken than normal. "See, Zeddy? What did your mother tell you about listening to your tunes too loud?" Danny remarked, giving the fallen villain's corpse a disdainful kick. Ember, who was floating down to meet him, had to snicker.

"You know, I'll give you that one, Baby-Pop. That was very fitting." she said with a grin. Usually, she would make fun about his tendency to lean toward the corny expressions, but for once, he actually said something genuinely amusing.

"Thanks, Em… But damn, the city's gonna have a hell of a time fixing this block. Sigh… Well, at least ol' Vlad will end up with the bill!" he said, smirking at the idea of his arch-nemesis' reaction when he discovers this new problem with the city budget. Ember had to agree with that, having dealt with the arrogant halfa before.

"Hmm… Still wanna grab something to eat before we try to figure this out? I recall this guy mentioning something about getting on somebody's shit-list. I hope he's the only guy that was sent…" Danny said, pondering the situation.

"Yeah, I'm getting hungry. We'd better eat. Well, YOU'd better eat. I only eat because I can, remember." Ember quipped. It was so easy for her Baby-Pop to overlook the fact that she's dead when it came to food.

The two heroes took off resuming their trek to the diner. However, in the short time window between their departure and the (late-as-usual) arrival of emergency vehicles, a red vortex opened in the sky over Zed's corpse, sucking him up into the void and then vanishing as if nothing happened. But not before Zed had one last thing to say while being drawn upward…

"Meus vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto….!"

Danny and Ember's nice breakfast was lightly marred by thoughts of the fight that had occurred not too long ago. Of course, they couldn't avoid the fact that they both looked like they just came from a street fight, Danny with quite a bruise on the side of his face to go with his ripped outfit and Ember suffering a few cuts, clothing tears, and bruises from the energy discs and attacking letters. The diner staff still couldn't believe that two of the city's resident vigilantes just casually walked in, sat down, and perused the menu looking the way they did. The head waitress was overheard joking that they're actually in the middle of a fight against crime but both sides had "agreed to a food break".

"So… What's running through that noble head of yours, Dipstick?" Ember said, slightly muffled by her mouth being full of pancake. Danny would've joked about that, but to Ember's correct hunch, he was deep in thought of what had happened as he munched on his French toast. Somebody had sent that guy after them. And, while he wasn't anywhere close to Pariah Dark, he was a lot more destructive and chaotic than most of his criminal nemeses.

Who could've sent him? Did Freakshow have some supernatural contacts from prison? Perhaps. It kinda suited his M.O. anyway, considering his mayhem with a certain Gauntlet…

The Guys In White deciding to 'fight fire with fire'? No, that just wouldn't make sense. A Government agency wouldn't let a city's worth of innocents get caught in any crossfire, would they? Then again, Danny remembered the time they came close to destroying everything with one missile…

Who else... Vlad? Definitely a suspect, but why would he release something that destructive? What use to Plasmius was a destroyed city with no "subjects" to acknowledge his superiority?

Most of Team Phantom's other nemeses didn't seem to fit anywhere close to the—SPLAT! Danny's deep thinking was rudely interrupted by Ember throwing an entire pancake at his face. "Ah! Dammit!" muttered Danny as he grabbed the thrown pancake and, much to Ember's chagrin, started eating it. "Jeez, Ember, what?"

"Well, you kinda zoned out there, space cadet. Don't tell me 'Lord Zed' back there got you worried. We totally went all Power Rangers on his ass. One less creep-of-the-week to worry about, right?" Ember said, looking impatient but her voice spoke of concern as she mischievously took a piece of Danny's French toast as payback.

"Yeah, I know. But who the hell sent that guy?" Danny asked, having a bad feeling about this incident. Almost like he knew that this wasn't over. The crackling of the Fenton Phones earpiece went off right then.

"Tech 1 to Clueless 1, I hope you're there!" came the voice of one Tucker Foley, sounding urgent.

"Yeah, Tech 1. I read you. What's up?" he answered, that bad feeling somehow becoming stronger.

"Dude, you gotta get to the mall!"

"Tuck, I hope you're not calling about pre-ordering Doomed 4. I said we'd take care of that soon enough."

"No, man! Ghost problems! I think Youngblood upgraded or something. There's this giant boat floating over it and a lightning storm seems to be emanating from it. I dunno who pissed in that kid-pirate's cereal this morning, but he means business! Those lightning bolts are hitting the ground!" Tucker was suddenly interrupted by the sound of thunder. "AGH! Stop with the lightning, dammit! There's people down here! Jeez, good thing he's not attacking during max crowd time in the afternoon. It's hysteria as it is over here!"

"We'll be over. Lay low, Tuck."

Danny looked out the window they were seated at, not sure which direction the mall was from their position. Nothing. He got up and wandered around the diner, looking out the windows until, sure enough, he saw an isolated thundercloud in the sky hovering over a noticeable hovering boat of some kind. Even from this distance, he could tell that it wasn't Youngblood's pirate ship. Perhaps the kid had indeed upgraded.

He returned to where Ember sat, the look on her face clearly asking 'It's not over, is it…?'. "Um… Ember? Have you heard from Youngblood lately…?"

"The kid? Yeah, earlier this week. He's fine. A little rowdy like all kids, but that's normal. Why?"

"Because either somebody set him on a murderous rage or Zed wasn't alone..."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **And Danny just stated what all of us readers already knew. XD But anyways, holy crap, I spent a good chunk of an afternoon and evening on this chapter! Didn't think I was going to, but there I went. Whew… I gotta warn ya that I'm usually not this quick with chapter updates. I apologize in advance for any delay.

Also, how was the fight scene? Good? Bad? I haven't written a ton of those and I was trying to keep true to Zed's actual attacks/abilities as a Boss in the game.

Read and review, as always. It's well appreciated and I find reviews helpful!


	3. So Very Metal

Author's Note: Sweet! Chapter 2! Finally… I got stuck in a couple of spots writing this, but I think I've done alright. Guess that's the tricky part about stuff like this. Sometimes, you really have to take some liberties with some things. Ah well, let's see what I've come up with, shall we?

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Chapter 2: So Very Metal

Danny Phantom and Ember emerged from the diner, having quickly left the remains of their food and two $20s to pay for the food (with a nice note saying to keep the change). As the two started their flight toward the isolated storm over Amity Mall, Danny got on the Fenton Phones.

"Phantom to Huntress, come in. You hear about this emergency?" he asked, figuring that Valerie might've gotten an indication by now of the very-obvious ghost ship. The two had managed to work out a truce and Valerie had started to get to know the infamous Ghost Boy better, especially after Danny had convinced her of how sorry he was over a certain incident with a certain ghost dog.

"Boy, do I! I'm tracking some new joker as we speak. He seems to have parked himself inside the Arcade, but he caused quite a stir en route. Tossing bombs at cars and zapping pedestrians. Sigh… I knew it was a matter of time until one of these ghosts got violent enough to murder!" growled Red Huntress, sounding very frustrated. Danny sighed. Even more of these new guys?

"Yeah, Ember and I just dealt with some new guy ourselves. We ended up destroying him, but he said something about being sent after us by somebody Ember and I pissed off. Now, some other guy's trashing the Mall and we're on our way to intercept." Danny explained, feeling the subtle chill in the air as the duo flew closer to the storm.

"That huge ship? Yeah, I can see it from my position. You go deal with that. I'll keep an eye on Mr. Game Jockey over here, see if I can get a good shot in on him. I'm glad the arcade hadn't opened yet when he burst in..." She paused. Before Danny could say something, she spoke again. "Be careful, Ghost Boy. I'm really not liking the look of that ship. I thought Vortex was the only ghost around here that could control weather."

"Who knows anymore with these guys? Thanks, Red. You be careful yourself. Phantom out." As he cut communication, he noticed that Ember had an intense look on her face. More intense than she usually gets when it comes to fighting. "You alright, Em?"

"What? Ya mean for a girl that's about to face another dangerous unknown super-prick right after barely surviving a battle with one with nothing more than herself, her boyfriend, their powers, and sheer luck? Yeah, just freakin' peachy…" Ember snapped. She wasn't angry at Danny, of course. If anything, she was angry at the whole situation. That punk loser wasn't a pushover and Danny had to use the Ghostly Wail on him. It was guaranteed that Danny still wasn't back at 100%, despite having just had a good breakfast. Danny could tell that she wasn't mad at him, mostly because if she was, she would've struck him, being the kind of woman she is. He was okay with that. After all, he himself had his own dark side, currently trapped in a dented Fenton Thermos…

"Yeah. Just another day on the job." Danny replied, mostly to himself, just as the duo flew within the range of the storm cloud. Oddly enough, it wasn't raining. Just lightning and thunder. The flying ship wasn't terribly huge, but fairly sizable. It had an ancient look to it. It sort of reminded Danny of the common knowledge of Vikings. One could say that the ship was certainly living up to Viking legend as it pillaged the mall.

Danny clicked on the Phones again. "Tucker, how's it looking down there?"

"Trouble, man! The people he managed to hit with that lightning somehow turned into zombies!" The halfa looked down toward the Mall. In the parking lot, he could make out bursts of green light: Tucker firing a Fenton weapon. The couple of years in the 'business' instilled a few harsh lessons on Team Phantom. One of which was that sometimes, you can't save them all. You can just keep going and do what you can.

"Shit… Well, we're in the area. Take care of things down there. We're going to speak with the Captain." Danny said as he and Ember began increasing their altitude, heading straight for the longboat.

"Got it. Good luck, Danny." Tucker answered, ending the call.

Somehow, landing on the main deck of the ship itself was quite easy. No minions, no pissed-off crewmen, nothing. However, if they were hoping for a surprise attack on the perpetrator, those hopes were quickly dashed as they looked around and quickly noticed the strange balcony above them. Strange because the balcony sat atop a large horned skull, most likely that of a devil of some sort. Also, it comprised of a large seat surrounded by… an elaborate drum set? On the seat sat what looked like a huge viking, glaring right at them.

"Ah, well met, skraelings! Have ye come to grovel for mercy? Because I haven't any for ye!" the viking bellowed in a boastful voice, the kind of voice that one would expect a viking to have. A hulk of a being, the viking stood up, clutching in his hand a large medieval two-sided battle axe. He had greasy black hair which framed his face. His glowing pale-blue eyes were made more noticeable by the fact that they were surrounded by patches of sheer black (whether it's from face makeup or his skin rotting out is unclear). He wore a viking helmet with curved goat horns, but a closer inspection would reveal that the helmet was actually stapled onto the top of his head, like the result of a crude operation. His skin was a sickly-white, but if that wasn't a clear giveaway of his undead nature, his bare torso definitely was. His stomach flesh had been completely cut off, revealing his stomach, intestines, and other organs for all to see. The fact that he didn't seem to give two craps about it was testament enough.

The giant gothic axe didn't seem to be enough weaponry for him as his wrists were both covered in wristbands that had ludicrously-tall spikes all around them. His black pants and boots seemed like an afterthought, especially considering his "cape": a bear-skin rug which was slung around his right shoulder and draped down across his side. Danny and Ember soon found out that the viking wasn't the only threat as the bear's head, sitting on the enemy's right shoulder, roared at them with a hungry look in its glowing red eyes.

"Aye, Yumil…" the super-zombie said, giving the bear-head a pat on the head. "They be our meal, as ordered by the master. But even these skraelings must know that good meat needs to be good an' tender." he said, his tone intentionally threatening. He then leapt off of the balcony and landed with a heavy thud (and a clank from his giant axe) on the deck. "But before all, I think they should know who is executing them this day. I am Vikke, Dark Purveyor of Viking Metal!" he bellowed loudly.

"Who cares? You could be Loki and we'd still shove that axe up your ass." Ember said, her arms crossed and a pissed-off look on her face. Vikke grinned, his black chapped mouth widening in a creepy display of rotting flesh. "I like ye spirit, I will give ye that, stelpa. But all that would do is make me consider saving ye death for a good pillaging first." he growled, causing Ember to shudder in disgust.

"I don't think so, metal-head." Danny said, his hands glowing with ecto-energy, ready to fight. "You're raiding days are over."

"I haven't even begun to ravage this land, puny skraeling!" Vikke roared, stomping forward toward the couple, axe gripped with both hands. Ember played a few riffs of her guitar, bombarding the giant viking with pink energy fists. While they did connect, they seemed to barely do much of anything to hurt him or even slow his approach. Danny concentrated power into his right hand and charged in, throwing a punch into his exposed organs. However, while it did stop his charge, Vikke laughed.

"Nice hit, skraeling. But, while I may not have what ye modern-day brigands call 'rock-hard abs', that doesn't prevent me from trainin' me organs to be strong! A literal iron stomach! Perhaps intestines made of steel!" As he finished, he swatted Danny aside with a backhand, sending the halfa tumbling to the wooden deck, a couple of cuts across his face due to the opponent's spiky wristbands. Vikke then raised his axe, causing a bolt of lightning to strike it like a lightning rod. The Viking then pointed his axe in the general direction of Ember, who was flying in to deliver an attack of her own. The diva was hit with a searing dose of pain as the lightning strike threw her back the way she came, electricity running though her body in such a way where, to anybody looking, one could make out a ghostly skeleton inside her ghostly being. Almost like a Looney Tunes cartoon, if the situation weren't so serious…

"Is that ye best? I crave a challenge and you two are the strongest here? Our benefactor must be weaker than I had thought!" Vikke taunted with a cruel snicker, his axe once again clutched in both hands like a staff. Feeling peeved (and a little charred), Ember got back up and lunged at the hulk, swinging her own 'axe' toward his head. Vikke turned his axe in such a way where the long axe handle intercepted the incoming guitar body. The rock diva kept swinging, despite the viking's skilled maneuvering blocking most of them. Soon enough, Danny got involved by coming in close and pummeling areas of his body that Ember wasn't trying to hack, hoping that the old 'numbers game' could wear the plundering zombie down.

As if proving that size doesn't always equal speed, their combined assault left Vikke open for numerous ecto-powered punches, kicks, and point-blank blasts as Vikke seemed to focus on blocking Ember's continued guitar assault. However, as the double-teaming started to actually do some damage against the mad viking, Vikke's frustration grew. He suddenly leaped up and away from the duo, landing back on his drum-set balcony.

"Agh… I sometimes forget that I be only one person. But no matter! You two will still be nothing but mere chum before the hour is done! Now, without any further delay… DRUM SOLO!" he bellowed, dropping his big axe to the floor beside him, drawing out two steel drumsticks, and started a furious rhythmic beat on his numerous drums. Almost immediately, two things started to happen. First, the clouds above seemed to darken, thunder barely roaring over his loud drum playing. The hair on the back of Danny's neck began to stand up, as if sensing a literal electricity in the air. Not a good sign…

But a more imminent problem presented itself. A small group of levitating zombies appeared from behind the drum set and started to dive toward Danny and Ember. The halfa felt like he had seen everything. Flying zombies? Danny couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by the blatant distraction by the enemy as he barely dodged a zombie before turning and firing an ecto-beam at it. What is it with supervillains and hiding behind nameless minions anyway?

His annoyance turned to brief amusement when he saw Ember treat the flying goon squad like a home run derby, standing her ground and swinging her guitar at the incoming enemies like a baseball bat. As a result, zombie heads and bodies would go flying in random directions, clearly defeated.

"And another one gone, and another one gone, and another one bites the dust!" Ember said as she swung at yet another zombie, the head flying right at Vikke. The viking smartly leaned to his left so that his pet bear skin rug, Yumil, intercepted the zombie head in his mouth and ate it like a jawbreaker. Amazingly, this didn't throw off his drum playing whatsoever, keeping to his rapid barrage of drums.

As Danny put down the last undead "missile", the result of Vikke's drumming manifested itself with a gigantic lightning bolt that struck the drum set and then, through Vikke himself, redirected as a huge electric blast toward the couple. Danny was blinded by the sudden burst of light when the bolt came down from the sky, leaving him with enough time to turn intangible. Ember, on the other hand, leapt upward and used her guitar as a hoverboard to gain enough altitude for the blast to cruise harmlessly by beneath her.

Unfortunately for Danny, the blast seemed to be more powerful than it appeared, managing to shock him anyway, despite intangibility. He was reminded of how he got his powers, being electrocuted inside the Ghost Portal. His scream was barely heard over the roar of thunder. As the blast ended, Danny flopped down to the ground, still conscious but weakened. He wondered if he was going to phase back to human form soon enough.

Ember chanced a glance down. To her horror, she saw her boyfriend emerge from the tail end of the electric blast, with more rips and tears in his uniform, his white hair partially blackened and smoking, and the cuts on his face from Vikke's backhand bleeding profusely. She watched as he slumped to the ground, helpless. She turned her gaze to Vikke, sitting with his damn drum set, his cursed pet, and his oversized axe. She began to see red.

Not giving a crap anymore, she dived toward the balcony, hoping that Vikke would remained distracted from watching his victim lay in a smoking heap. As she gained speed, she heard him exclaim "Aye, Yumil! Another one vanquished by the Metal God!" before laughing at the boy's misfortune. His laughter was interrupted by Ember and her guitar crashing into him and the balcony from above, the resulting crash scattering and wrecking his drum set. The behemoth of a zombie was knocked to the ground, Ember's guitar jammed right inside his cut-open torso, tangled up in his stomach and intestines.

Ember herself was punching and clawing at Vikke's face. "You sonovabitch! You and your stupid lightning and your crappy-ass axe! When I'm done with you, I'm gonna rip your 'benefactor' a new asshole!" She then grabbed his head by the horns of his helmet and repeatedly smacked the back of his head on the ground a few times. "By the way, your eye 'guyliner' sucks!" she said as she got off of him and grabbed her guitar by its neck. Having a sudden thought as Vikke tried sitting up, she reached in and started to play a few riffs, shooting waves of energy inside Vikke.

"Uggh…! Me stomach…! You stop that racket, stelpa!" Vikke roared, clutched in the throes of pain, preventing him from getting up. He swatted at Ember, who had to stop playing to quickly dodge out of reach. Immediately, she went back to her guitar and played more riffs, harming the viking more.

"Man, I've heard of wearing your heart on your sleeve, but you take it to a new extreme. What's the matter? Can't handle a real instrument?" she taunted as her hands rapidly worked their magic. She was thankful that she wasn't one to have a weak stomach, since one of her hands was forearm-deep in some fleshy insides… Fleshy squirming insides that couldn't handle the power burst of her guitar. The intestines started to rip, the stomach started to rupture. Vikke was getting desperate. Fumbling around on the ground, his fingers brushed against something familiar he knew all too well.

Ember's frantic playing was mostly fuelled by rage, so it wasn't that surprising that her peripheral vision was mostly ignored, especially when she got the upper hand and wanted to keep up the pressure. She nearly had a reason to regret not paying attention as Vikke managed to grab a hold of his giant axe and bring it forth in a wild arc toward Ember.

"EMBER!" came a familiar voice, snapping her out of her tunnel vision enough to notice the double-sided blades of the axe rapidly coming at her. Going intangible, she leaped back off of him, her guitar still entangled in zombie innards. The axe passed right through her legs, right where her solid head was a half-second ago. Turning, she saw her boyfriend hovering nearby over the deck, looking like he could barely float, much less fly up to the balcony like he did. His face was almost a crimson mask of blood, an odd contrast to the glowing green eyes…

"Thanks, Baby-Pop. But you shouldn't have done that! Look at you…" she said, instantly worried about his condition. Of course, she would deny ever freaking out about his health if anybody brought it up. But her concern was valid nonetheless. She was the one that was all dead, not him.

"I'll be fine, Em… I'm glad I came up here… And don't start." he said, knowing the look she gets when she's about to argue something. "If that blast could hit me while I'm intangible, surely that axe could destroy a ghost. Who knows what these guys are fully capable of."

Ember knew Danny's thoughts were legitimate. For all they knew, this probably wasn't the full extent of this viking prick's abilities. "Sigh… Good point. Still, you should rest. I think I got a way to weaken him, maybe buy you some time to recover a bit. Just have to get in close and aim low, so to speak." she said, watching as Vikke managed to sit up (after his third try), glaring at them. "I don't think his insides are 'rock-hard' anymore." she snickered dryly.

"Bah! So you mangled my guts… I'm not concerned! 'Tis just a flesh wound!" Vikke said, defiant as he tried getting to his feet, damaged stomach and intestines starting to hang loosely from his gaping torso. The viking wasn't used to being put on the defensive. Well… There was that one other time…

"Did he seriously just go Monty Python on us?" Danny asked Ember, suddenly picturing Vikke wearing a black suit of medieval armor.

"Yeah, but he's definitely not a pushover. Better not give him a chance to fully recover." Ember responded, not liking the progress the viking is making in standing up. The super-zombie, on his knees, started to use his axe like a walking staff, trying to pull himself up using it as leverage.

"I think I know what to do." Danny said, his bloody mouth turning up in a smirk as he started flying toward the struggling foe. Ember facepalmed. Leave it to her 'Boy Scout' to throw his beaten self into battle. All to save the city, she had to tell herself. She began thinking of what his sister had theorized about a 'hero complex'. When Ember removed her palm from her face and looked toward the impending battle, she noticed his hands glowing blue instead of the usual green.

Ah ha. Clever…

Vikke couldn't believe it. He was struggling with standing up. STANDING! Such a simple task and he could barely attempt it. This shouldn't be happening! He was the God of Metal!

"You look like that hurt. Poor baby need some help?" a voice mockingly asked him. The viking looked up to see his prey hovering just a couple of feet away, eyes ablaze and fists clenched. Of course, the bruises, tattered clothing, and the blood made him a tad less intimidating. So did Vikke's ego.

"Pathetic skraeling… You dare belittle me… You'll pay for that!" growled the Dark Purveyor. The snarling of the living bear pelt was a particularly fitting display of the viking's mood at the moment. Vikke managed to get one foot on the ground, placing him in a kneeling position. Now for the other foot. He pushed upward.

"Well, at least take an ice pack to your wound first, dude." quipped the halfa before he brought his hands together, firing a beam of cryogenic energy at his exposed insides. It had the effect he was hoping for, damaging Vikke even more while effectively freezing his torso all over until it looked like his gut was just a jagged chunk of ice.

"Aggh! No…! NO! So cold… Too cold… Ye think this will end me…? Ye underestimate the viking way, mortal!" Vikke bellowed, trying to pull himself up by using his upright axe again. However, his lower half wouldn't move, due to being numbed from the cold. His tugging caused him to lose his balance and fall over. The impact caused the ice to shatter which, as a result…separated Vikke's legs and lower extremities from his upper body! Frozen innards, shards of ice, and Ember's guitar were scattered about as the two halves of viking scum lay haphazardly, Vikke's face twisted into a frozen look of rage and exertion.

Ember flew over and quickly snagged her guitar back, giving it a good once-over to see if Danny's icy attack damaged it in any way. The halfa landed on the balcony next to her, looking down at the creepy ancient sailor. "Ya know, I think we did overestimate something about him, though. His value! I didn't think he'd be worth five cents but now I see that he's at least worth… half off!" he said before laughing at his own joke.

Ember groaned loudly. "Wow… I didn't think you could ever get cornier, but you just did it." she said, shaking her head in exasperation. Neither teenager saw the halved viking's hand begin to slowly move…

"Aw, c'mon Em. That was fitting! Yeah, it was obvious, but what else would I use? 'He wasn't half the man he claimed he was'?"

"Yes! That's a better one. Sigh, Baby-Pop, sometimes your humor really needs some fine tuning…" Ember said as she dusted some leftover bits of ice off of her guitar, completely unaware of the viking's hand wrapping its fingers around the battle-axe. However, Danny's field of vision being in the general direction of Vikke's corpse, he couldn't help but notice the large axe suddenly start dragging across the ground.

He quickly grabbed Ember and pulled her away and into the air just as Vikke's upper half swung the axe in a furious arc. Ember shrieked, taken off-guard by Danny's actions until she looked back to see half of Vikke floating in the air, a grin on his face.

"Curses, here I thought I could surprise ye. I suppose not. Heh… Ye may have exploited me once, but not again. For I am the God of Metal! I cannot be killed!" he declared, with loud booming laughter following. He dive-bombed toward the two, swinging his axe at them as he flew past them. Danny and Ember flew away in separate directions to avoid Vikke's wild swing. The half-of-viking slowed and turned back to face them, a bloody grin on his face.

"Half the size, twice the fury. Just great…" Ember groused, firing an energy fist at Vikke which punched him in the face, but didn't faze him. Danny flew in and, with ice-covered fists, clobbered him in the face. However, when Danny threw another ice fist, Vikke was suddenly hit with lightning in such a way where electricity began crawling all over his upper half. Danny's fist made contact with the electric barrier, instantly shocking him with thousands of volts of power, knocking him backward. Barely managing to maintain flight, he managed to land on the deck without hurting himself even more. His hair had a comical look to it, that poofy 'static electricity hates me' look.

With a shake of his head in an attempt to focus through the pain, Danny regained his bearings and stood up. Unfortunately, he was suddenly hit from behind, his face smashed onto the ancient wood floor. Ember had looked back toward him just in time to see him get pummeled to the floor…by Vikke's legs? The viking's lower half had apparently gained some form of sentience. The renegade lower half took to jumping up and down on the fallen halfa, the weight of the combat boots enough for the jumping to be hazardous to Danny's back. With a speed born of fear, Ember flew straight toward the rampant torso and, swinging underhand, brought her guitar straight up between the torso's legs, connecting at the groin. Her strength combined with the fact that there wasn't much of Vikke's waist area left to begin with resulted in her 'axe' cutting right through the middle, separating the legs from each other as the limbs became useless lumps of rotten flesh.

"Hah… See that…? You messed with my man, so I castrated ya!" Ember called out, expecting some sort of retaliation. As expected, the grin from Vikke disappeared, replaced with a grim snarl. Ember snickered at his look, feeling a little cocky. "What's wrong, dickless? Mad that you can't pillage and plunder anymore? Go cry to someone who cares." she said, adding in a passive wave of a hand in a dismissive manner. The electricity that provided the shield around Vikke's upper half began to increase in intensity as the viking growled in frustration.

"Ye think ye're that close to victory, eh stelpa? Ye and yer weak skraeling mate and yer pitiful weapon… Bah! Ye don't even have the superior element of METAL! Ye will taste defeat this day!" Vikke vented, voice growing louder with rage as he spoke.

"Heh. Coming from the half-size neanderthal? Sounds like you're only trying to convince yourself." Ember chided, trying to sound like she had the upper hand. Truthfully, she was wary about the evil zombie's electric shield and that huge battle axe he still had an iron grip on. But the last thing she wanted to do was to give him the satisfaction of knowing she felt trapped in a corner. As nonchalantly as possible, she turned her attention to her fallen face-down boyfriend.

"Baby-Pop?" She knelt down, placed her guitar beside her, and prodded Danny's shoulder with a gentle hand. "Baby-Pop, you alright?" She got a muffled groan in response. He was coming around. Well, it was one step in the right direction, at least… Although she had to bet that his face would be a lot more bruised and bloodied than the last time she saw it, no thanks to the harsh landing from that drop-kick and being jumped on…

Their current battlefield couldn't help but be noisy. Wind, thunder, the creaking of the ship… With the exception of the occasional thunder, it wasn't deafening, but it wasn't soft either. Fortunately for Ember, she had been paying quite close attention with her hearing since turning away from Vikke. A good musician knows what to listen for. It's sometimes key for songwriting, for rehearsals, for auditioning a new band recruit's range of talents… and, in this case in Ember's career, in battle.

She noticed the subtlety of Vikke's rapid approach. The whoosh of air as the half-of-body flew through it, the small crackle of his electric barrier, the gnashing of rotting teeth as the viking was forced to contain the outburst of extreme rage that was growing within whatever was left of his lungs. She was listening for that the whole time and was powering herself up, her hands glowing with a pink energy.

Pissed villains were predictable villains. One lesson that the dark forces always seemed to forget so easily... With a quick grab of the guitar she set down, she rose back to her feet, turning toward Vikke as she did so and bringing her guitar around. The purple, flame-embossed instrument had instantly been imbued with the power that she had been gathering in her hands, thus giving it the edge it needed to cut through the electric barrier. As if her timing couldn't be any more perfect, the 'axe' ended up cutting through the viking's raised left arm and slammed right at the side of his neck. The sliced arm fell to the deck, along with the axe, as Vikke wasn't expecting to suddenly lose an arm and lost grip on the two-handed weapon. Yumil, the bear head, roared in rage at seeing his master be harmed so.

"Wha?! NO! Ye underhanded cur! Even chicanery like this cannot save ye!" Vikke snarled in pain, his one remaining limb pathetically trying to reach out toward Ember, fully intending to try to do anything against her. Ember smirked and, pushing to the left with both hands and utilizing her ecto energy again, brought her buried axe across the rest of his neck, cutting both Vikke's and Yumil's heads off as she freed her weapon from the thick mass of zombie flesh. The heads went tumbling about the deck as the detached torso landed with a thud, Vikke's head bouncing up and over the railing of the ship, destined to be street pizza below.

"I think we've had enough 'headbanging' for one day." Ember quipped with a satisfied smile on her face, shaking off globs of old blood off of her guitar. A groan was heard in response. "Em, that's not exactly how to get a-head in humor." said Danny as he pushed himself up to his hands and knees, having been conscious enough to lift his head and witness the head chopping and ensuing victory pun. Ember scoffed. "I'm surprised the joke didn't go over your head, Dipstick of mine."

Danny chuckled before being overtaken by a coughing fit. Ember went over to him, worried. She wondered why he had to be so damn stubborn. As she thought, his face looked like a walking nightmare of bruises and cuts, his skin more purple and blue than his normal pale and his cheeks and eyes all swollen (although he could still see). She offered him a hand to help him up, which he gladly latched onto with a hand of his own. "Thanks, Flame… God, this'll take a while for my healing factor to take care of… Ow, not to mention my back…" he muttered as he and Ember hauled him to his feet, a hand clutching his lower back in response to the sudden spasm it gave him.

"Note to self: Refrain from using the phrase 'jumping your bones' next time I'm in the mood." Ember said, taking one of his arms and positioning it across her shoulders so she could help steady him as he weakly stood. Danny's head slumped in reaction to her joke, although Ember could hear him snickering. Moments later, the moment catching up to them, they both burst out laughing. It felt… necessary, like they needed a good solid reminder that they still existed. Like seeing a light at the end of this current tunnel of crime-fighting.

Danny tried calming down. But then, he had to say it… "Hehe… Jump your bones… Pffft…." And then he let loose with fresh laughter alongside her, just two fools enjoying a moment of relief. With his sore body, the laughter began to hurt him soon enough. But he didn't care. They'd manage to take down two powerful foes in the same morning. Maybe, just maybe they could save the city!

As they calmed down and the laughter began to fade, the couple began to realize that a third voice had joined in. A loud, bellowing voice… Eyes widening, not knowing how it could be possible at this point, they looked around the ship. At first, there was nothing. But then, like the galaxy's ugliest sunrise over the edge of the ship, rose a gigantic version of Vikke's head, clearly the size of a wrecking ball.

"Haha! As ye can notice, I be a HEAD above the competition!" the giant head declared as it hovered above the ship, a blood-gushing grin on his face. Danny and Ember both gulped involuntarily. What the hell could they do against somebody that just refuses to stay completely dead? They both realized the irony of that question with the fact that both of themselves aren't completely alive either. The head lowered itself to the opposite side of the deck and opened its mouth, inhaling. A vacuum of wind resulted. Danny and Ember managed to stand their ground, but the vacuum did manage to pull in the useless slabs of flesh that was the rest of Vikke's body. The head closed its mouth when the body parts piled inside the gaping maw, the viking becoming some facsimile of a complete being again, if only metaphorically speaking.

"Ye best prepare for oblivion now, skraelings!" Vikke exclaimed as a loud battle cry as he suddenly launched himself toward the couple like a catapulted boulder. One would've expected the two heroes to dodge aside and let the huge head sail past them. But one would be underestimating how fed up they are of this particular foe. Not only was he a threat to the city and humanity, but he was a general pain in the ass. Mustering their strength, which was harder for Danny than for Ember, they both had the same thought in mind. They decided to confront Vikke, "head" on.

Danny, catching Ember's attention through her peripheral vision, raised a hand to signal the number three. Then two, his eyes squarely on Vikke as he judged the distance between them and the viking head. Both vigilantes bending down and tensing their legs, Danny signaled for one. Then, they leapt toward Vikke, a move that surprised the Dark Purveyor but didn't slow his approach. Undead eyes widened and a confused snarl, Vikke watched as the two pests went flying right at him. In fact, it seemed like they were coming right for his eyes. He saw them adjust their bodies in midair and his vision was suddenly drawn toward two pairs of incoming boots.

Suddenly, Vikke felt extreme pain and could see nothing but darkness. "AAAAHHH! What the?! Ye scrawny little bilge rats! Me eyes! What have ye done to me eyes!" Danny and Ember had indeed used a boost of flight power, which resulted in a pair of devastating dropkicks to the eyes, one hero for each eye. However, perhaps they had accelerated a bit too much… They were both buried up to their torsos inside Vikke's eye sockets, within a thick pool of old blood and burst-eye fluids. Despite the obvious advantage they now had, this was easily the grossest way of getting an upper hand so far.

"As disgusting as this is-and believe me, I'll barf after this is over-at least this is a unique way of seeing things from somebody else's point of view!" Danny said, feeling queasy from the situation, the smell, and some motion sickness from Vikke frantically moving his head around in pain, his momentum causing the giant head to bounce from railing to railing on the deck like an air-hockey puck until it began to slow to a stop. Ember drew her guitar. "Less joking, more fighting, Dipstick!" she answered as she began bashing the viking head wherever she could with her guitar, almost like she was frozen in a pool of ice and was attempting to chop herself free.

Speaking of ice, Danny decided to freeze the area of flesh around him. Vikke could feel the effects of the cold numbing the pain on his left side. However, the relief was minor due to Ember's continued pummeling. "Agh! When I get ye where I want ye… OW! Ye'll be chum! AHH! I swear it! UGH! Y…Ye'll be… b-b-be nothing! L-l-less than n-n-n-nothing!" he said, the legendary viking endurance of the cold finally being outdone by Danny's cryokenetic force as the upper-left side of his face became completely frozen solid. Danny kept applying his ice energy, the spread of the deep freeze growing across Vikke's face.

"Whoa! Not too far across, Baby-Pop! Let's not freeze me in here." She said, noticing the ice creep ever so close to her temporary self-imposed prison. "Although, I think this might be enough to finish it." she mused. After a few seconds, she shrugged, raised her 'axe', and began chopping at the frozen area that was within her reach. As she thought, cracks formed with every swing, bringing forth more screams of agony from the deranged not-so-super-zombie. Swing after swing, crack after crack. Until finally, she delivered a swing that ended up going through the iced-over flesh as the cracking gave way, shattering loudly like a giant glass window. The effect was like a weird, imploding ripple effect as piece after frozen piece of viking face broke and fell to the ground, eventually freeing Danny from the punctured eye socket. The halfa landed on the ground and looked back just in time to see the rest of the fragile one-third of Vikke's head cave in on itself and crumble to the ground, even the stapled-on metal helmet cracking under the extreme cold.

Nonetheless, Vikke screamed his last upon the shattering of half his brain, his mouth hanging open upon death. Ember pushed herself out of the broken eye with a slight help from her power. Landing on the ground, the diva looked at the crippled giant head, trying not to think about how she really could go for a long, sanitizing shower.

Her thought was interrupted when a blue vortex appeared in the sky. Although there was no wind, the remains of Vikke's head seemed to be drawn to it like a vacuum. However, before the head went through, the viking Dark Purveyor of Metal had one final thing to say…

"Meus Vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto!"

As the vortex disappeared into nothingness, the couple looked at each other, both having the same question in mind. 'What the hell did that mean?'

Unfortunately, before they could ponder the cryptic demonstration of strange tongues, they were forced to confront a certain reality of how supernatural power seemed to work.

They were standing on a longship that was unnaturally floating in the air. Fact.

The longship was a creation of Vikke the Dark Purveyor. Fact.

Vikke was the source of his creation's power. Fact.

If Vikke's gone… then so is the power. Fact.

Longship, meet gravity. Amity Mall, prepare to meet longship!

Like a hot air balloon that popped, the ship began losing altitude quickly. Feeling this change and realizing what could happen, Danny and Ember flew off the ship and looked downward. The good news was that, during the battle, the ship had apparently gained altitude. The bad news was that, if the couple didn't do anything soon, the ship would crash-land on the Mall or someplace near it.

Danny immediately put a finger on the Fenton Phones. "Tucker!"

"Danny? What's up? Did we win?" The calmness in Tucker's voice told Danny that he was probably finished dealing with the zombies or had managed to escape them.

"Well, we won, but his ship's sinking faster than VladTV's ratings!"

"Dude, don't remind us of that failed scheme… That was just terrible. Hmm…" A moment of silence. "Whoa! Yeah, I see it… Crap, what're you gonna do?!"

"Not sure. Super-strength wasn't exactly one of my top abilities."

"Blast it to bits?" Ember suggested.

"And possibly have huge chunks of wood rain down on everybody? Can't afford to have that…" Danny replied, growing worried. The time to act was rapidly fading. What could be done?

Wait… There was one thing…

Perhaps… It seemed pretty risky, especially in his condition. But at this point, it was better than no plan at all. Flying downward, he swooped in so that he was right under the ship, then positioned himself so that he was facing the ship itself, letting himself fall beneath it.

Taking a deep breath, he hoped that this plan wouldn't result in him being buried in rubble between building and boat. For the second time that day, he unleashed the Ghostly Wail, directing it toward the ship. At first, it didn't seem to have any effect, but eventually, the force of the sound waves pushed against the ship so that it slowed it's decent. Unfortunately, the use of his ultimate attack quickly drained his remaining energy, but he had to push on.

It was a good stroke of luck that Ember followed him down, as she saw that the roof of the mall was getting dangerously close and, glancing at him, she didn't think Danny knew how close he was getting to the ground. The ship's fall slowed to half its speed, but that was all they had time for. Flying in, she wrapped herself around him and went intangible, the couple going through the roof of the mall just two seconds before the ship made contact with the mall.

Fortunately, thanks to Danny's plan, the ship only landed hard enough to crack and dent the roof, but nothing more. The Mall remained intact, but what a repair job this would turn out to be. Well, on top of all the other destruction so far, of course… Ember turned the both of them solid again and hovered them down to the first level floor by the mall's obligatory water fountain, panting. The things she did to survive having a target on her head… However, when she landed, it seemed that the exhaustion from the morning's battles had caught up to her. She flopped down beside her lover, feeling completely beat. Maybe she should rest for a while. The thought was tempting as her eyes wavered and flickered shut.

Then they burst open again. She shouldn't rest now! The city was in danger and Danny needed medical attention! She quickly sat up and took a look around. The first thing she checked was her boyfriend.

Unfortunately, Danny had run out of energy and had reverted back to Fenton, which was especially troublesome as he had yet to let his healing factor repair some of the damage he took from the morning's fights before turning human. To say he was sore was an understatement. "We…did it…?" he asked, his voice harsh with pain.

"Yeah. The mallrats'll be back by this afternoon. Sad part is that I'm probably not joking." Ember said with a tired chuckle. Clearly, it was an empty attempt to lighten the mood. It was more like she was trying to convince herself that things'll be fine. Danny was a mess and practically out of commission and there was still more to be done… She herself wasn't even at full power.

"Now what do we do…?" Ember muttered to herself, receiving nothing in response but the playing of cheap mall music over the intercom, which seemed to consist of just a peaceful-sounding strumming of a stringed instrument at the moment. Weird, for a mall. One would think that malls would be playing pop music or something… Ah well… Peaceful guitar music would be fine… Wait, no. Ember could tell. That wasn't a guitar. That was a sitar. Expert musicians could tell any instrument, anywhere, anytime.

Whatever. She had a problem on her hands in the form of a fallen de-powered boyfriend. If there were more assholes out there, they both needed to recover right away. Too bad life wasn't like a video game where one could just stumble across a health power-up and heal right away upon walking into it….

Getting up, she took stock of her surroundings. Obviously, the place has long since been evacuated, but signs of recent life were around in the form of hastily-dropped shopping bags and garbage. Open stores offered plenty of exploration, but this wasn't the time. The water fountain they landed near seemed typical mall fare. Although… was it just Ember or did the water seem to have some sort of gleam of rainbow colors in it? It kinda looked like what one would see when trying to blow a bubble with soapy water, that multicolor sheen… Weird. Almost hypnotic….

Shaking her head, she looked back at Danny to see him trying to sit up, grunting and groaning in the process. "Dipstick, c'mon… You're gonna hurt yourself even more. Wait 'til your power comes back…" Ember chided, gently trying to push him back down. Danny was stubborn, though. "Em, we gotta… ugh… gotta keep going…" he groaned, still attempting to rise.

"Hey, c'mon… We got Team Phantom on this, right? Huntress has that other guy cornered, so maybe we're set for now. A short break. Then, you power up and let your body heal up. Hell, maybe if ya call Tucker in here, he might have some first aid on him. Then, we see what's up. Alright?" Ember said sternly. Normally, she loves it when she gets to put the foot down and be in charge, but this wasn't for fun… Danny nodded. "Fine, sure… Just hope nothing drastic happens for a while…"

"Good." she confirmed as their ears seemed to pay attention to the only other noise here, the strange sitar playing on the intercom. Not like there was much else to do, with Danny being temporarily immobile…

As solid as Ember's plan for the moment was, she just couldn't shake this weird feeling. She couldn't put a finger on it, yet she had this intuition that something was going to happen here. But what? As far as she knew, only Tucker knew where they were right now. And that's if he somehow watched Danny and Ember's actions from wherever he was outside… Speaking of which…

Gently lifting the Fenton Phones from Danny's ear (with a slight objection of "Hey!"), she put it on and proceeded to call. "Tucker? It's Ember. You copy?"

Static… "Tucker? Come in, Tucker." More static… "Really? Does this mall have a freakin' dead zone in here? You'd think these places would be striving for wi-fi… Tuck, you there?!" she tried calling out one more time.

The static wavered from bad to worse to bad…until it suddenly cleared up to….more sitar playing. "The hell?" she grumbled, annoyed as she began to wonder if that viking had done something to the mall itself before the battle. Although peaceful sitar songs is not even close to Viking style…

"Danny, call Tucker. Something's up with your Fenton Phones." she requested, suddenly feeling more alone than she was a minute ago. Vulnerable perhaps. With a groan and a small struggle with sore muscles, Danny got out his (surprisingly unbroken throughout all this) cell phone and tapped on Tucker's number to dial, putting it on speakerphone.

It rang….and rang….and rang….until somebody finally answered. Danny spoke first. "Tucker! Can you come in and help me out. That Wail drained all my energy and I'm pretty beat up here."

No response. But then… "I'm sorry" said a feminine voice. "The number you have tried is not available due to the number carrier being a total narc. I hope you enjoy your stay at Amity Mall, where our prices may not be high, but I know I am… and you'll just DIE from pleasure when you join me."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Two Purveyors down! Only three to go! Now here's where I had to start really taking some liberties with the boss encounters. For instance, in Lollipop Chainsaw, your character doesn't dropkick Giant Vikke Head's eyes out… That was just a morbidly amusing thought I had of a way to out-metal a morbid freak of metal. "So metal that your eyes'll burst? Certainly!" XD The other aspects of Vikke's powers/abilities are true to the game, though.

Fun Fact: Vikke the Zombie Viking is voiced by Michael Rooker, which some of you might recognize as Merle Dixon from The Walking Dead. For those Walking Dead fans that haven't played Lollipop Chainsaw yet, don't expect that to mean that Vikke has a redneck accent. Lol. Just thought the zombie connection between the two roles is amusing.

Vikke Notes: Some of you might have noticed the two terms he kept calling Danny and Ember. According to the Wiki, "Stelpa" is Icelandic for 'Girl'. "Skraelings" is also Icelandic, meaning 'Little Men'. Vikke actually uses these a few times in the game, so I'm just having him be true to character.

Also, a side note: I wonder if anybody can guess where I got the "Fact" thing from. I typed that segment of sentences like that as a reference to something. Fact!

**READER REVIEW REPLIES:**

Invader Johnny – Nope, Danny has that oft-mentioned Hero Complex. He won't stop saving people. Lol. And yeah, help would be nice, especially now! XD

Shadowrgj – Well, here's another fight! Lol. Hope you liked this one too.

Redwheel05 – Unfortunately, as a quote would go, Zed's Dead, Baby, Zed's Dead. Glad ya liked how I portrayed him, though. For more Zed, if you've never played Lollipop Chainsaw, I recommend playing it. Or at least watching YouTube videos of it. (Shameless game plug, I know. Pardon me…)

DannyPhantom619 – Zed got pwn'd so bad that we should expect Ashton Kutcher to meet Zed on the other side just so he could tell him that he "totally got Punk'd!"!

ARega1s – Thanks! I certainly hope I haven't screwed this story up yet. :D

Heartless Demon Wolf – I hope this chapter proved to live up to your expectations and I welcome more feedback.

As always, feel free to REVIEW. Always appreciated!

Next Chapter: A beaten and worn-down Danny and Ember face the 3rd Dark Purveyor's antics a lot sooner than they'd like! For those that've been paying attention to the genres of music being used, this genre should be obvious by the ending of this chapter.


	4. It's The Revenge Of The Hippies!

Author's Note: About time I uploaded another chapter, am I right? Sorry I took so long on it. It took a while due to a couple of things. First, well, with the gimmick of this particular chapter, some doses of insanity were required. I'm just hoping my jokes and shenanigans here don't backfire on me. Secondly… This Dark Purveyor certainly proved to be a LONG encounter here, that's for sure! I think this is the longest chapter yet. Might be the longest chapter of any story I've done! Yikes! Well, my strategy was simple. 1 prologue chapter, 1 chapter for each Dark Purveyor, and 1 conclusion chapter to deal with ol' Vladdy. 7 chapters. Maybe I need to start doing 2-part encounters if the last two Purveyors prove to be lengthy fights…

Disclaimer: Me? Own anything? Nope.

Chapter 3: It's The Revenge Of The Hippies!

"Who the hell are you and what have you done with Tucker!?" Danny asked, fearing that whoever answered Tucker's phone might be holding him hostage or worse. He didn't want to think about the 'or worse' part.

There was no answer but even more sitar playing. It was clear now that whoever this was, she seemed to be in some form of control of the mall. Judging from her intent, both heroes doubted that the intercom music was the only thing she controlled in this mall… Most likely, the third of these superpowered mercenaries. Perhaps this woman was "back-up" in case Vikke failed, the attack on the mall being just a cover-up for her to set the stage?

Couldn't be. How would these guys know that their 'targets' would end up there? The whole Vikke thing could've turned out differently… No, this reeked more of the kind of unfortunate circumstance and bad luck that some video game heroes would have when developers need something to move the story along and keep the action going. Danny, being a gamer, felt the bitter sting of that particular thought. Damn cheap plot devices!

But more pressing matters were at hand. Particularly the fact that Tucker didn't seem to have eliminated all the zombies, as Ember and Danny noticed a few of them scattered about, making their way toward the large intersection, having been drawn by the earlier noise and yelling. Thankfully, it was just a small batch of them, 5 or 6 of them. Too bad that Danny still couldn't muster the energy to transform back to Phantom, much less fight.

"Sigh… I got this." Ember said, once again drawing her guitar. Danny started to get up again, but Ember gently pushed him back down with a gentle foot on his chest. "No, Dipstick. Rest. It's only 6 zombies and they're all scattered around and slow-moving. Jeez, you're one impatient patient!" she said before removing her booted foot and started toward the closest zombie.

"Yeah, yeah…" Danny sighed. At the very least, it's not like this third merc straight-up attacked them like Zed or became a major public threat like Vikke… Small batches of minions were easy for Ember to deal with while he attempted to regain some energy. If only he could transform again… 'Armchair general' or not, this super-zombie probably has her own way of making things brutal in a hurry without showing herself.

He settled for watching his girlfriend swing her 'axe' around with ease, as if she were a skilled swordswoman. The unfortunate souls of the dead were relatively easy for her to dispatch, limbs and heads flying as she moved from one minion to the next. Two minutes later (it would've been less if the zombies were close together), Ember was back at Danny's side.

"That's definitely not the last of them, but at least there aren't any nearby now. Sigh… How're you holding up?" she asked, her eyes full of worry. Danny could count the number of times he'd seen that fretful a look on her face on one hand. He could tell by the nonchalant way she asked the question that she was trying to maintain her 'tough woman' composure.

"Just fine, 'doc'. This nice mall floor's doing wonders for my back." he shot back, just as nonchalantly. The smirk on his face, slightly hindered by a swollen cheek, told her that he was fine enough to kid around with her. Shooting a smug look right back at him, she replied by lightly placing her foot back on his chest again, keeping him down but careful not to put too much pressure on him. "Yeah, well, I still think you should stay down while we have a chance, Baby-Pop. It doesn't look like this bitch wants to show herself yet."

"Assassin, maybe?" Danny pondered as he grabbed Ember's foot and moved it slightly to the left, to an area that was less sore. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise him if this new foe was some sort of stealth master this time. After the last couple of hours, not a lot would surprise him now. Ember shook her head.

"An assassin? What're we? Templars? Besides, if that was the case, why the sitar music and the warning?" Ember asked, ignoring the slight look of surprise on Danny's face. She knew what he was taken aback from. She may not have played many video games, but a girl doesn't date a gamer without at least picking up a few tidbits from different franchises, including one about a certain creed…

"Point taken. Assassins usually don't toy with victims. Hmm… Perhaps we're dealing with someone who's all bark and no bite?" he asked, only to receive a loud scoff from his lover.

"Yeah, that'd be real nice about now. Naaah, as if we'd actually get someone as weak as ol' Boxy… I'd say that she's probably holed herself up somewhere in the mall and expects us to track her down. A fight on her terms, probably. Bitch…" she said, muttering the insult as an afterthought. Danny chuckled a little at that.

"Yeah, a makeshift lair deep in Victoria's Secret. That'd work." Danny joked before laughing. Immediately, he regretted it as his chest began to hurt a bit more from the laughter. "Damn… It hurts to laugh." At this, Ember grinned. What a time to be cracking jokes, deep within enemy territory. But they both knew the truth of the matter. The longer they took, the more mayhem that these mercenaries could cause.

Ember took her foot off of Danny and decided to check her guitar. It had been a long time since her beloved instrument has seen such long use. Some wear and tear was evident around the body of the guitar, but she could worry about making it look brand new later. Danny on the other hand decided to try to transform, the conversation managing to take his mind off of the pain of the last fight. Trying to focus his small reserve of recovered power, it was like trying to flick on a lighter with a couple of drops of fluid left. You flick and flick, getting nothing but a little spark, hoping that it'll ignite.

'Don't think of the pain.' he thought, concentrating. After a minute of straining himself, a familiar-looking white ring appeared around his midsection, looking flimsy and static. Slowly, the ring split into two rings as the transformation hesitantly progressed. "C'mon… c'mooon…!" he quietly grunted, his body's need for rest and recovery trying to overtake his mind's need to transform. The rings had paused at his neck and his ankles, apparently stuck as he tried to prevent transforming back. It began to feel like trying to push closing elevator doors back open when those motion-detection sensors won't let the doors open back up when you put your hands in there.

"Dammit, Dipstick. You look like your constipated or something… Sigh… We're both a little low on juice, but lemme help." she said, bending over and placing a glowing hand on his chest, right on top of the DP insignia. A moment or two later, the rings resumed their progress, finally completing his transition to Phantom. Danny relaxed, panting as his healing factor immediately began its slow healing process. That particular passive ability wasn't as productive as the likes of Wolverine, but the young halfa was thankful to have it nonetheless. Within minutes, he was actually able to sit up with some effort.

"So now what? We try and find this bitch? Escape? Perhaps some window shopping?" Ember asked, beginning to feel a little anxious. It probably wouldn't be long before this new enemy got bored and decided to try another scare tactic or perhaps something more direct… Phantom managed to turn himself over onto his hands and knees, patiently working his sore body to standing up. One movement at a time…

"Well… I do have my… ugh… my debit card with me. Maybe we can… ahh… find something cool while we whup ass." Danny quipped, placing one foot down on the ground so that he was now down on one knee. Ember smirked at this position. "Well, now… I hope you realize that two months is a little soon for thinking about buying an engagement ring, Baby-Pop." She had to laugh at the puzzled expression on his face, which was followed by a look of embarrassed realization as he noticed his body position.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Just for that, you're not getting that new guitar I've seen you eyeing online…" Danny grumbled as he pushed himself upward and attempted to maintain balance on his two feet. Ember huffed. "Hey! Not cool!" Despite this, she grabbed his flailing hand, attempting to help straighten him out. "Well, you'd probably end up stealing it anyway." Danny remarked, passively but playfully. She knew he had her there.

Minutes later, the two started wandering (or limping, in Danny's case) around, thinking about where they should start looking. With any luck, this hiding enemy would be as easy to handle as Box Ghost or Klemper. All bark, no bite. As they moved around the central intersection and the water fountain, they couldn't help but notice something odd. On a few of the support columns in this intersection, flatscreen TVs were placed overhead on them, usually airing the news or the weather stations or family-friendly entertainment. However, the TVs weren't showing anything normal….

On one TV was a giant yellow eye, seemingly looking in their direction. The eye was placed on a constantly-changing background of random patterns with a rainbow of different colors, somehow fitting with the persistent droning of the sitar music. On another TV on an opposing column was another giant eye, a faded blue one that looked to be damaged somehow, having a blurry iris. As with the first one, the background was some sort of trippy loop of rainbow-y patterns. Despite the eye damage, this eye also seemed to be looking right at Danny and Ember.

On another TV, on a far column from the couple's position and again with a colorful background, was a feminine set of full lips, covered with teal lipstick and turned upward in a lazy, content smile. As if on cue, the mouth let out a series of slow throaty chuckles. "Haaa…haaa…haaa… Brother Danny, Sister Ember… Feeling rested, are we?" Her words seemed slurred somehow. Not drunk-slurred, though…

"How do you know our names anyway?" Danny asked, really not liking the mercenaries' advantage of information. "Haaa… Quite far out how one can hear things through the grapevine, little dreamer… Like, I hear that you're being a total buzzkill for somebody. Not everyone likes a narc. Tell me… Are you a narc?" The two individualized eyes seemed to glare at the couple when she asked the question.

"The hell do you mean 'narc' anyway? We do our own thing!" Ember countered, annoyed already with her arms crossed. The televised enemy chuckled again, as if Ember had just said that somebody slipped and fell. "Oooh, sounds like somebody needs to expand their minds… And I'm in the mood to share the love, young ones. So, let's see if you can walk the walk, shall we? For only those with… enlightened consciousness can get down with me… Walk with the dark spirits for a while, my children…" she said, the mouth turning more upward in a friendly smile before all three screens turned to static.

"So… Was that supposed to be a warning? Or a battle cry? A threat? I don't feel very intimidated and that's saying something, considering I still feel like I've been through a meat grinder." Danny stated, feeling put off. And it wasn't even 11 am yet. He looked over to a nearby clock only to discover that it was… wait…

Now that's just redundant. 4:20? Really? Well, that explains the new foe's 'peaceful' demeanor, as if they couldn't possibly guess already from her slurred speech and her choice of decorative TV backgrounds, much less the crazy sitar playing… He was tempted to shoot the clock out of sheer annoyance, but knew he had to conserve whatever power he had for actual enemies.

And so, after Danny took a minute to stop by the fountain to wash off the drying blood on his face, they started walking/limping…

Going down a corridor of storefronts, they glanced at the various stores, wondering where the enemy could possibly be hiding out. Not even five minutes later, Ember spotted one that looked promising, considering the last words the cowardly (in their view) foe said. "Hmm… Walk with the dark spirits, huh? I don't suppose that she meant Hot Topic?" Ember said, beginning to think that perhaps the enemy's words were some sort of riddle.

"Sigh… Who knows? It's a start, I suppose. Let's see if they sell stoned zombies." Danny replied, limping over to the store entrance. From looking in, the store looked the same as it ever did. Clothes and accessories flashing many different famous movies and TV shows, dark walls, knick-knacks, and so on. Maybe this freak was hiding in the back? Only one way to find out.

However, upon stepping through the doorway, the scenery instantly changed to that of a graveyard. The situation would've seemed quite dire if it wasn't for all the franchise logos plastered all over the gravestones, bare trees, and even some spots on the ground itself. In fact, it seemed quite humorous that the changed reality would certainly be fitting of Hot Topic becoming less of a gothic store and more of a trend-following store. Sam would have a field day with this one.

But appropriate satire would have to wait as Danny and Ember noticed zombies coming out from the graves. An obvious turn of events. "Well, they aren't stoned, but I guess I got my zombies after all." Danny muttered, raising his fists. He didn't have enough power for ecto-beams, but he could at least dish out a few power punches. What he was thankful for, however, was Ember and her amazing guitar-swinging skills.

Unfortunately, as Ember worked on the growing crowd of zombies that were near her, Danny was left with a few of his own, along with a couple of lumbering, tall, overweight zombies. "Umm… Are you two looking for XXL sizes? You might wanna try the Men's Big And Tall store down the way!" Danny couldn't resist saying, zombie lack of intelligence be damned. He started swinging at the closest normal-sized zombie, hoping that his limp leg could withstand some movement. Fortunately, the regular ones were no match for his energy-covered fists. But the large ones were quite a bit tougher than the halfa expected, the blobby behemoths practically absorbing his blows.

"Perhaps you need to go Triple XL… Hmm…" he suggested, stumbling backward (his limp getting progressively better in the meantime). A heavy thud was heard from nearby and he felt the ground shake a little. Evidently, Ember had come across and at least knocked down a big one herself… He pondered his options. Big, dumb, slow-moving, with stubby legs that look like they could give out at any time… Aha! Carefully maneuvering himself around a couple of tombstones, he positioned himself in a specific spot, luring the bulky minions toward him. "C'mon, you fatasses! Feel the burn! Sweat it off, guys!" he taunted, waving his arms like a goofball.

Sure enough, his strategic positioning paid off as one of the blobs stupidly tripped over one of those ground-level tombstones that only stick up about a half-foot high. With a thud, the zombie landed face first on the dirt. Or rather, gut first, even if its face smacked the ground, breaking and flattening the nose. The other one tried walking past him but ended up tripping over the grounded one's flailing right arm, falling down just ahead of the first one while his tangled legs snapped the flailing arm off.

Danny gaped. "…I can't believe it. That worked out a lot better than I thought it would! Talk about stupid!" he exclaimed with a grin on his face. The situation may be grim, but he'll take whatever good luck he can get. He hobbled toward the sounds of his girlfriend fighting to see if she's ok. It turned out that she didn't need much of a hand, as she had single-handedly slashed up all her opponents with her "axe", including a couple of big ones. He saw Ember finish off her last zombie by smashing its head off with a stylish spinning swing of her weapon.

"YEAH, BABY! WOOOOO!" the diva cheered to herself as the last corpse hit the ground, raising a fist up in the air with a celebratory devil-horns hand gesture. "Nothin' gets the ol' ectoplasm goin' like a good round of rockin' out!" She had to admit that it was a little stress-relieving to vent on a force of evil that could be easily defeated. Not that she didn't want to take the fight to the villain in charge, of course. A few easy wins is just a good morale booster. And a few less evil minions existing never hurt either.

"Yeah, Ember. We should label this new track as your 'graveyard sessions'." chuckled Danny, giving her 'performance' a round of applause. Feeling the slight boost of energy from Danny's attention, Ember holstered her guitar back on her back and walked confidently over to him. "Good one, Captain Obvious. How you doin'?"

"Well, still sore, but I think I can almost walk normally again. Could probably be able to hover within a half-hour. At least I can fight. Well, fistfight…" Danny assessed, curiously putting a little weight on his bad leg. It still felt stiff and a little painful, but a lot better than it felt when he first got up off of the mall floor, the healing factor at work. He glanced around his surroundings. "What now, Em? This graveyard of dead franchises seems to stretch on forever."

Despite the Nascar-Race-Car levels of brand advertising, Danny did have a point. The graveyard seemed fairly huge. In the dim light of the full moonlight, it was hard to tell where the end of it was. Both of them could tell that there were more zombies for them to deal with, if the shadowy shuffling figures scattered about in the distance surrounding them meant anything…

"Guess we have to browse the store…" Ember grumbled. Should've known that leaving a jinxed store would be a lot harder than entering it.

It seemed like 2 hours that they were exploring and fighting through the over-commercialized cemetery. In truth, it was only 30 minutes. But who's counting time in distorted realities anyway? In amongst the zombie-fighting, they couldn't help but notice some of the branded gravestones. Some were just amusing for the particular brand(s) that happened to grace them, such as the McDonald's logo ("Obvious heart attack!") or the Geico logo ("Wonder if this is where those cavemen were buried."). Others because of the names carved into them, like 'Poe', 'Elvis' (with 'lives' spray-painted underneath it), 'Wayne' ("Batman?") or "Elvira".

Finally, only noticeable out of sheer luck as it was easy to miss, the couple seemed to have found a possible way out. A lonely gravestone, sitting on top of a hill next to a tree. One wouldn't think to look twice at it were it not for the often-seen little red "EXIT" sign attached to the top of it. Seeing no other recourse, they climbed the hill, dispatching a couple of straggling zombies along the way.

The "EXIT" sign had an arrow attached to it, pointing down toward the grave itself. However, Danny had to facepalm when he read the actual tombstone. Way to go, Hot Topic…

'Here Lies BETELGEUSE'

"Somebody has too much time on her hands…" muttered Danny. The ghoul however was concerned about something else. "Whatever, Dipstick. I guess we dig our way out. See any shovels?" she asked. A quick look around told them that there weren't any. Even so, Danny figured that since their less-than-hospitable 'host' went this far…. He limped over to the bare tree and, building up a little power in his good leg, kicked the bare tree over. "NICE F'N MODEL!" he yelled skyward, grabbing his crotch while he was at it. For whatever reason, his crotch 'honked' twice.

"A bit much, Baby-Pop…?" Ember dully asked, both realizing that her outfit had been changed to a red, spider-web patterned poncho over a black form-fitting spandex bodysuit.

"Whoa… Yeah, maybe." Danny replied. There's a difference between referencing and going too deep… Still, the moment of mocking defiance felt right.

"Sigh… Well, I got this. I think…" Ember said, drawing her guitar and hovering above the grave, facing downward. "Prepare yourself, Mr. Juice! You're gonna get rocked!" she declared before fiercely playing some riffs on her guitar, sending a constant beam of energy at the grave. As she theorized, her blast dug into the grave, shoving or obliterating the dirt in its path. Ember stopped after a few moments, not wanting to attract too much of an undead audience…

Fortunately, her blast went deep enough. Through the hole, they could see part of a casket sticking out through the dirt, still mostly-buried. Ember, being more anxious to leave, jumped down and played a few single riffs, shooting out low-power energy shots to precisely clear away dirt from the top of it. Floating, she then grabbed the lid of the coffin and pulled…

With a creak and a groan, the old wooden casket opened to reveal…. What it revealed, she couldn't tell as she (and Danny from topside) got sucked into the casket by a powerful force. Instead of a claustrophobic small space of two people being squashed in the same casket, they found themselves falling through the entrance to Hot Topic back out to the mall corridor, normal gravity quickly taking over so that it looked like they were tossed out of the store, hitting the tiled ground abruptly. Ember's outfit had returned to normal.

Again with the sitar music over the intercom… Well, at least they left the store. Too bad it turned out to be a wild goose chase. Still no mercenary! Speaking of which…

As if she already knew what had happened, her voice came across the PA system. "Heh… Totally far out, little ones. I knew you'd begin to see the light... And so begins the road to true enlightenment. Hee hee hee… But, can you truly grapple with the consequences…?" The voice faded back into the now-usual sitar music. The young heroes got back to their feet, Ember faster than Danny. "Grapple with the consequences? That supposed to be another riddle or another false trail?" Danny groaned, wondering if all stores had their own twisted zones of parodic derangement.

"Bitch wants to play games, we'll just change the rules! C'mon, Baby-Pop. Let's go shopping!" Ember declared those three special words that normally fills guys with dread. But not this time. Oh, it was time for some shopping alright… "Yeah, Ember. I have a few choice words for the new management anyway." And so began the strangest adventure yet.

(A/N: For the next segment of the chapter, I'm not too sure about writing these scenarios, because I'm trying to portray these little warped realities like mini-levels in action video games. Ya know, explore, fight enemies, maybe nab some collectables/power-ups, that kinda thing. Sorta self-explanatory, but I wanted to try and avoid a lot of "they wandered over here", "they floated over there" kinda tripe.)

Instead of trying to figure out the creep's little riddle, they decided to tackle any store that might look like it might make a suitable hideaway. First, they charged the sporting goods store, which inconveniently placed them in the middle of a football game from Hell, with an army of buff zombies wearing football uniforms and helmets on the warpath toward them. As if Danny didn't have enough problems with football players when he dealt with Dash at school… Thankfully for Danny, he managed to find a couple of odd weapons: A bowling ball and a little 20 pound dumbbell. It was a little unorthodox, but the two heavy weights proved effective enough when used like handheld clubs. Meanwhile, Ember had decided to try her luck by using… a fishing rod and a tennis racket? Her guitar seemed to have disappeared when they entered and replaced by the two sporting items, a probable side-effect of reality-jumping.

Her weaponry seemed unwieldy and useless, until she had figured out how to use them. The fishing rod ended up being handy with tripping up incoming baddies by tying them up by the legs. As for the tennis racket, it was nothing that a little infusion of her power wouldn't fix. One particular stand-out moment came when Ember used her fishing rod and tripped up a zombie that appeared to be the lead quarterback of the undead team. It had fallen on its face and immediately scrambled to get itself back up.

However, Danny wasn't having any of that. Feeling inspired by the scenery and wanting to test how well his bad leg was healing, he got a running start toward that particular zombie and delivered what would probably be his finest (and, most likely, his only) field goal punt, ripping the head right off and sending it flying. Going… going…. gone, right through the uprights! Well, sorta… The couple hadn't noticed this before but apparently, the football goalpost wasn't there. In its place was a giant grey feminine hand, posed in the V-shaped "peace" sign. After the head sailed between the V, the hand began to move, fingers curling and uncurling until it stopped again, giving Danny and Ember a "thumbs up" while fireworks went off in the sky and the sounds of a crowd going wild were heard, despite the stadium being occupied by Danny, Ember, and the dwindling zombie horde.

"Oh look, she's mocking us…" Ember said in a clearly disdainful tone of mock-amusement, complete with mock-applause. Danny, who had just clubbed another zombie across the helmeted head, gave a noncommittal grunt as he swung at another zombie that was shuffling toward him. Soon enough, all the opposing "players" were "benched" by the two heroes. Nearby, a doorway opened up by itself. Believing that it may be another trap but having little other choice, they went through the doorway. It led to a locker room.

It would've looked like any other typical football locker room if it weren't for the fact that all the lockers were covered with little paintings, depicting things like the peace symbol, the weed insignia, flowers, tye-dye patterns, a happy-looking sun, hearts (whole and broken), trees, various words like "Love" and "Groovy" and "Expand your mind", among other things. "Somebody pissed off the art department. Bet'cha all the guys' jock straps got painted pink" Ember quipped upon looking around. Danny wandered over to one of the benches and sat down to rest for a moment. That punt had went well, but it wasn't the best idea admittedly. Sore muscles or not, at least he could walk normally again. "Too bad this can't happen at my school. Our team could stand a new paint job. Especially Dash!" Danny chuckled. Ember smirked, having invisibly seen the blond meathead a couple of times when she followed Danny to school one day.

"Yeah, I think he'd look better with orange hair. Hmm… Nah, purple would be funnier!" Ember mused for a moment before getting back on track. "How do you think we'll leave this store, Dipstick?" For a few moments, Danny glanced around the room, at the painted walls of lockers, the far wall broken only by a doorway into the showers. "Well, I hope we're close to the exit by now." he replied, his eyes wandering along the various doodles and drawings. Until he noticed it. Almost hiding amongst the graffiti, posted on one of the smaller lockers near the shower doorway, was the exit sign. Just like the last one, it was another official business/retail style exit sign. "Found it!" he said, getting up and moving toward it.

"The showers? As much as I love the idea of us having a shower together, there's no way this jerk's getting a free show!" Ember declared, crossing her arms. Who knows what they would have to do in order to finally escape this 'sporting goods store'… Danny walked into the showers. At first glance, it seemed to be just your ordinary locker room showers, just covered with even more far-out graffiti, this time including things like raining storm clouds, bubbles, more random words, fish, and even a phrase on the floor near a shower drain: "Soap dropped here!".

"Hmm… Nothing strange here, unless you still count the graffiti." Danny said after walking around the showers and taking a close look at everything. Nothing seemed even remotely unusual, like it'd possibly be some strange way out. He wandered back out to join Ember, who was looking at the Exit sign, thinking. Danny followed her gaze to the sign. A moment or two, he finally got it. "Oh, man… Don't tell me… The locker's the exit?"

"You sure these guys don't know you somehow? This has to be a knock at…"

"Yeah, me being crammed in lockers all the time at school. No, this has to be mere coincidence. I'm sure of it. I think…" Danny shuddered at the thought of these mercs possibly spying on him before this invasion. How much could they know if that was the case? No, that just couldn't be. This 'zone' is a twisted reality of a sporting goods store. This exit has to be nothing more than just fitting in with the gimmick.

"Alright… Ember?" He paused. "Cram me into this locker."

Ember wanted to smirk, but couldn't. The mischievous, formerly-villainous side of her felt like this could make up for all those times Dipstick had to play the hero and stop her, despite the fact that she actually loves him now. The rest of her, however, had to feel sorry for her Baby-Pop. He had mentioned before how many times that the school bullies would zero in on him, which included numerous locker stuffings, even after he got his powers. She barely understood his reasoning of maintaining a secret identity, only because in her mind, she'd have unleashed some ghostly fury upon said bullies if she was in his shoes.

So, with a shrug and a 'Sorry', she pulled open the locker, grabbed Danny, and forced him into it.

Despite a moment of feeling crushed in a tight space, Danny popped outside the store like toothpaste when too much pressure was put on the tube, once again 'falling' through the entranceway back to the mall corridor. Moments later, Ember fell out, landing on top of him before he could get up. "Um… Thanks for breaking my fall, Baby-Pop." Ember said, noticing their position, her on top of him and their faces inches apart. "Anytime, flame. What're boyfriends for…?" Danny said, his face growing crimson from realizing that her close proximity was beginning to arouse him.

Unfortunately for him, Ember felt a certain appendage begin to poke her inner thigh while she awkwardly (only awkward because of the whole danger element) remained on top of him. She knew it would happen. "Well, I dunno, but I certainly know that boyfriends can have ulterior motives. I see you're enjoying my company, Dipstick." Ember said, snickering as she said it. Cutting off his imminent stammering with a quick kiss, she pushed herself up off of him and offered a hand for him to help him up.

"Em, you know I'm not in this just to get laid…" Danny grumbled, accepting her hand and hauling himself up. He noticed a familiar smirk on her face. "Yeah, because all guys nearly get themselves killed trying to save the world to get in a girl's pants." She remarked sarcastically, twisting his words around. "No, I mean the relationship!" Danny protested. Nothing like having a girlfriend that can match wits with you in any occasion.

"I know, Dipstick. That does mean a lot, but we got a city to save." Ember said before sauntering off down the corridor looking for the next possible store hideout.

The next store was an Abercrombie and Fitch and it proved to be a mistake for Ember. Rather, it was more like "Abercrombie and Bitch", insanely-loud store music included. The store was changed to a sickeningly-trendy nightclub aimed toward 2010's teenagers. Poor Danny was stuck with no shirt, gelled hair, and apparently felt the incontrollable urge to strike different poses like it's a camera shoot. Ember, unfortunately, was left alone, fighting zombies that looked and behaved like rabid boy-crazy skanks and/or sale-crazy spoiled brats, both of which used erratic movements and attacks. Ember was never more insulted than having received a Zombie Bitch Slap…

"Can't…. move…." was all that Danny could manage to say, his mouth being forced to wear a vapid, fake model smile while posing. All this seemed to stoke the amusement of the couple's hidden tormentor…

"Wow… That pose, that style… Now you know how it feels to worship The Man, Brother Danny. Closed-minded, ignorant, constantly in war with yourself… Hehehe… All that on top of looking like a total square, man. Bummer…" the slurred tones of the undead woman managing to overpower the warped store's intolerable music. "And look at you, Sister Ember… Reduced to fighting others to follow the trends that society dictates you wear. Just you wait. Once you spend some time jamming with me, you'll both see peace."

When the last zombie minion fell to Ember, the warped reality seemed to break, shattering like a giant window hit with a cannonball. Within mere moments, a normal Danny and Ember found themselves just inside the actual Abercrombie and Fitch, another 'test' conquered.

"I hate that bitch…" Ember said, walking out of the store and not wasting a minute more.

Just for the hell of it, they had decided to try Danny's earlier thought of Victoria's Secret. What they ended up getting was a taste of role reversal, when compared to the previous confrontation. The famous lingerie store was morphed into a super-fancy strip club. This time, Ember was the one who had lost control of her body, forced to gyrate around and swing on a pole in nothing but skimpy white bra and panties with angel wings on the back.

Danny was the one fighting now, beating down zombies that looked like they would've definitely been on the sex offender database had they been alive. Obviously, they were all male and half of the undead crowd was trying to get to the spellbound Ember in a way that seemed to be fueled by human lust rather than demonic hunger.

"I really hate that bitch! Baby-Pop, do something about these pervs! Ew! I did NOT just see one grabbing its crotch…! Oooh, when I get control of my body again…" seethed the ghostly diva as she was helpless to do anything but dance erotically on stage. She then felt her hands move toward her chest, more importantly, toward the hem of her bra. "Oh no… No no NO! NO! You better not make me flash the crowd, you whore! NO!"

Danny had just knocked the head off his 10th zombie in this particular realm with a powerful haymaker punch when he heard Ember's defiant yelling. When this began, he had noticed what she was stuck doing… Boy, did he notice, especially that new 'outfit' of hers, but he had to focus on the danger. It was hard for him….and so was trying to focus! (A/N: Gotta love puns…) But then came the yelling. 'Flash the crowd…?' That made him pause. Unfortunately, it gave the nearest zombie enough time to grab him, forcing him to struggle with it to not get bit. Succeeding in shoving the minion backward, sending it tumbling into the ones behind it, Danny looked toward Ember just as her out-of-control body did what she didn't want it to do.

Danny saw a little something of paradise, an oasis in this 'desert' of evil, so to speak. Granted, it wasn't like it was his first time seeing a bare-chested Ember, but he'd never get tired of seeing it. He suddenly had the urge to give her a fistful of $20s… 'No! Bad Danny! Bad! Fight now, love later!' he mentally chastised himself, barely dodging another zombie's lunge since he left himself wide open again. Whoever this particular mercenary was, she was making this fight incredibly difficult!

Tired and pissed off, Ember stormed her way down the mall corridor, the couple having finally escaped Victoria's Secret. She felt violated. How dare that stoned harlot make her show her tits! Granted, Danny was the only living soul technically there, but still, the idea of her body being controlled in that way... It made her think of the bad old days of when she was alive and when she was with Skulker. She was going to rip this bitch a new one.

"Um… Ember…?"

"WHAT?!" Ember yelled, turning to him and getting in his face. Her hair flared up, growing twice as big to mirror her temper.

"Ah! Uh… Guess you know I looked, huh…?"

"Well, I do now!" she snarled, glaring at him. Danny gulped. A couple of moments later, she turned away and let out a deep breath, her ponytail fire-hair slowly wilting back to its normal size flame. She shouldn't be surprised that he took a look. Any guy would in such a scenario. Well, any superhero would and still live to tell about it. Most guys in that exact situation would probably end up eaten by zombies as a result of being distracted by trying to see her. Besides, it could've been much worse. Her little 'show' could've been somehow recorded and broadcasted out, for instance.

"Sorry…" she heard her boyfriend say, sounding almost sheepish. No, she couldn't have that.

"Forget it. I'm not mad at you, Baby-Pop. Never was. It's just… ugh… this! I dunno how much more I can take of this. I mean, what's next?" Ember said, flustered and uncertain. Her frantic arm and hand gestures while talking easily gave away her worries to Danny, if her talking didn't. Danny put an arm around her. "We'll make it out of here. We're going to put Ms. 4/20 into 'rehab'. And then, we're gonna wrap this whole thing up by helping Valerie with that jerk at the arcade. Alright?"

She knew that mood. And that look in his eyes. Although she'd never fully admit it out loud, she loved it when he broke out that attitude, so full of stubborn determination and good-ol' can-do spirit despite their bleak crisis. "Alright, Dipstick. I'm cool. Let's rock this show!"

Hoping that perhaps this enemy was in a realm that's somewhat calmer, they tried the Apple Store. What a mistake that was. The realm they got sent to was….Nowhere. Literally, nowhere. As in a completely white void of nothingness. No walls, no ceiling, no windows, not even a floor. Although, somehow, they could stand as if there was ground… Perhaps this was a rib on how sterile-looking the store is?

The good news? There were no zombies to fight. The bad news…? There didn't seem to be any way out…

"Shit…" was all Danny could say. There goes the can-do attitude…

"Damn Apple… Couldn't they jazz up their stores or something? But noooooo, it has to be all white and plain and clean. See what that did?" Ember griped. At this point, she was beginning to question her sanity. Complaining about a store's look because of the alternate dimension it created? Sounds pretty crazy.

They eventually found their escape when Danny, realizing that this was a technology store, began to think like Tucker. After a few failed attempts to make something work via voice activation, he finally tried a simple trick. "Computer, activate System Restore, set to yesterday". As if on cue, the void suddenly erupted with binary code for a few minutes while a progress bar suddenly appeared above the couple. When it reached 100 percent, both the progress bar and all the binary code faded away to reveal them standing inside the Apple Store just as it was supposed to be, Exit and all.

The comic book store was just as maddening as the couple ended up appearing in a large observation room that reminded Danny of Clockwork's place, only instead of observing Earth's history and future, there were many screens dedicated to observing many different known people of different Earths of different timelines.

One screen showed a team of five teenage superheroes protecting a small city in California.

Another revealed different moments involving the martial arts misadventures of a pigtailed teenager that could change gender when splashed with water.

Yet another displayed a crew of both humans and different species from different planets, all serving under one powerful, sleek spaceship known as the Normandy. And so on and so forth.

"Ok, I got no clue how to escape from here. For all we know, it could be a matter of picking a universe." Ember grumbled. Lord knows there were so many different fictional universes out there. Human imagination, a blessing and a curse…

"And go through warped realms within a warped realm? Huh…. Sounds kinda meta." Danny mused, despite his growing concern over what traps could be set here. As they scrolled through the seemingly endless number of viewscreens, they saw places and people both familiar and strange. If only it were this simple in reality to visit a favorite franchise's universe. But now wasn't the time to ponder if the universe was truly the only universe around, not when a being of some sort was approaching them.

Danny and Ember watched the apparently-feminine figure float in their direction. Danny was immediately reminded of voodoo culture when he saw her face, with strange patterns and markings along her head, making her head appear like a decorated skull. She was wearing all black with a tight sleeveless dress with a hooded cloak that turned to long flowing strips of cloth in the back, like a deliberately torn cape.

"Ah, visitors… It's been dull here during my turn here, monitoring things. Especially since my dear Wade went off adventuring again. Mercenary work, he calls it. Sigh… But anyways, what might you be doing here?" the pale woman asked, her pupil-less all-white eyes gazing at the two newcomers.

"Umm… I guess we stumbled here by accident? We're looking for a way back." Danny explained, not really sure what to make of this.

"I see. And who might you two be? It's so nice to meet new people now and again. Most people I meet just come and go, but that's understandable, since I am Death. Feel free to call me Lady Death, if you like." the apparent specter said, smiling at them. They seemed… interesting.

"Death? As in….?" Ember said, eyes widening a little.

"The Grim Reaper? Yeah, that would be me. Although sometimes I wish they would stop with that title. It makes me seem so evil… I'm not that bad, really. It's just my given duty as the being I am. Sigh… At least Wade understands. To be fair, sometimes, I can't understand half the things he talks about. But what's a woman to do?" Death said, rambling on. Lonely beings would tend to be a little chatty…

"Death's a woman?" Danny asked Ember, just now putting two and two together about that. Now that was a twist.

"Is this one reason why the phrase is 'Payback's a bitch'?" Ember asked him in response.

"Would you believe that even my job has a glass ceiling?" Death asked. "Everybody expects me to be some skeletal old man. Maybe they're confusing me with one of the Four Horsemen… Such is death, I suppose. So… What world are you from?" The specter looked expectantly at them. She hoped the world they're from is an interesting one.

"Earth?" Danny replied. This was getting weird…

"There are many Earths, young one." Death replied, waving her hand toward the numerous screens, which began scrolling along horizontally like somebody scrolling along a smartphone's menu or photo gallery. "I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific. Perhaps by telling me who you are? You never answered that question."

"I'm Danny Phantom. This is my girlfriend, Ember McLain." Danny replied, curtly but politely. The feminine Death frowned, as if a thought had come across her mind. "Hmm… Yes, I see. So it was true after all…"

"What is?" Ember asked, curiously glancing at some of the screens depicting alternate universes. She noticed one about an Earth suffering from a zombie apocalypse with the fate of the future resting on a ragtag group of survivors led by a displaced Sheriff.

"A short time before your arrival, a spirit came to me here. She seemed amicable but I sensed the malevolence within her soul. Despite that, she merely wanted me to deliver something to one Danny Phantom. I do hope it's nothing bad. Although… I could use another soul or two… Oh! Pay no mind to what I just said! Natural habits, you know." Death explained, catching herself from her slight slip. To Danny and Ember, it was quite surprising to know that Death itself (herself?) could get embarrassed. It seemed so human…

"Um… No problem. You are Death, after all. I suppose it's instinctive to hope that we die… Um…" Danny said, realizing that his statement probably sounded dumber when actually said than when he came up with it in his head. Somehow, this was actually more bizarre than dealing with Clockwork's cryptic statements due to the Master of Time knowing everything but being unwilling to tell Danny anything of the future.

Ember nonchalantly watched another screen, this one depicting a world where all the world's major issues were dealt with by…stepping into a ring and fighting? Who knew that ending world hunger could be done by beating the crap out of some arrogant villain in front of a live audience and cameras? "Hey, Death? What's this one? Seems bizarre…"

"Oh, that one sprung up a few years ago. It's the WWE Universe." Death explained casually.

"I thought that was the name the company gave its fanbase." Danny remarked, taking a glance at Ember's viewscreen of interest. Apparently, a corrupt country had just gotten overthrown when its dictator got knocked out by steel chairs.

"Maybe in your world, but since then, this particular Earth appeared. Surprising what can influence the Multiverse sometimes…" the soul-claiming specter mused, shaking her head at the ludicrous viewscreen. "Anyways, back to pressing matters. This spirit left you something she said that you'd find… how'd she say… the bee's knees…?"

"Sounds like her alright…" grumbled Ember. "Alright, what is it?"

"It's over there in that corner. I'm not sure why she thought you would like it. Probably wants you to share in her obsession or something…" Death replied, pointing a slender hand toward a far off side of the chamber, which looked seemingly ignored in the dim light of glowing viewscreens. There seemed to be a large object of some kind, silhouetted by the viewscreens. It looked like a familiar shape, but Danny and Ember couldn't put their fingers on it.

"Well, I guess we should check it out. I mean, we are kinda stuck here." Danny said, shrugging. They were trapped in some other dimension with no apparent way out. Not that they hadn't recently escaped such a situation before, but still… Couldn't get much worse, right?

"Places to go and villains to defeat, I assume. It always seems that way with you superhero types…" Death thought aloud, nonplussed by the idea that she might be left alone to monitor the Multiverse again. Even an infinite number of entertaining possibilities can get boring without at least one friend to converse with… Perhaps she should once again find the viewscreen that focused on the exploits of her dear Wade…

"Tell me about it. I always have to sneak my stolen goods home." Ember said, getting an indignant 'Hey!' in response from the aforementioned Ghost Boy. Was it too much for him to ask that she leave the town's music-related items alone? Then again, he never forced her to return any of her 'five-finger discounts' since their relationship began… Everyone knew why.

Danny trudged his way over to the mysterious 'package' left by their seemingly indifferent tormentor, a little put off by Ember's joke as the other two ghouls followed. The glow of the viewscreens illuminated the object enough when the trio got close enough to it. Immediately, Danny resisted the urge to pratfall anime-style as they realized that it was a giant mushroom, as tall as Danny himself.

"Shrooms?! Ugh, so obvious! She expect us to eat this thing?" Danny said, glaring at the offending natural narcotic. What a stereotype, if there ever was one. There was only one way that this could end if they decided to do anything with it.

"Of course she wants us to get high off our ass! It's probably so she can whup our asses with one hand tied behind her back. What do you think this is? A Super Mario Brothers Power Up?" Ember said, sorely wanting to flambe the hell out of the enemy's 'gift' with her fire hair. Lady Death, in response, curiously scrolled viewscreens until she displayed one depicting the current adventure of the iconic plumber brothers. The couple stared at the friendly life-ending wraith, eyebrows raised.

"Well, she's definitely got a few tye-dye shirts short of a love shack if she thinks we're just going to eat that piece of trash." the halfa declared before he powered up an ecto-blast and threw his fists forward, energy shooting out toward the mushroom. As expected, the plant couldn't hold a candle to Danny's attack, causing it to crumble to pieces in a minor explosion. The remains and the part of the stem that was still attached to the ground were starting to emit light smoke.

Moments later, they realized their consequences as the little bit of smoke somehow billowed into a LOT of cooked shroom smoke, which the trio was unable to avoid inhaling. They couldn't breathe without coughing. Soon, their eyes began to water with their vision becoming blurrier as a result. Or was the vision problem because of the smoke itself? Last Danny and Ember checked, colors didn't just change themselves. Or did they here?

They didn't know when it started happening. Perhaps with the coughing fit. Maybe it was the changing colors. It would certainly be easy to argue that it may have really begun when the circular room lost its walls, the viewscreens scattering in every direction that led away from them. In its place… in everything's place… was nothing but a vivid, almost too bright, chaotic wave of colors, clashing with each other like old-school static on a blank TV channel.

They began to hear familiar sitar music playing, but unlike in the mall, the notes were played abrasively loud, as if the instrument was right inside their skulls. Migraines developed as a result. It got to the point where they thought they could see the vibrations of the musical sounds as the sitar strings twanged. After a minute or so, the music dulled as did the ultra-vibrant colors, but what they looked upon wasn't much better.

For Ember, she saw naught but what seemed to be a wretched apartment room. She was able to look around, but for some reason was unable to move. Straight ahead of her, on the wall that featured such 'pleasantries' as cracked drywall, chipped-off paint, and the occasional spiderweb or mouse hole, was a full-length mirror. Of course it had to have a few cracks in it. Defying the gut feeling that she wouldn't like what would be staring back at her, she looked in the mirror.

Bound and confined to a wheelchair, she was. Her clothes ragged and torn. Her arms and legs shackled to the wheeled device itself. It almost seemed like what her boyfriend had told her about the time he came across a version of her from a corrupted future. But that wasn't what freaked her out.

She would have gasped, if she has the ability to… A perpetual bloody stain around her lips replacing her lipstick was the calling card that drew her eyes to her biggest problem of all. After all, what musician could do what she loves when her mouth has been literally sewn shut? The stitching looked to have been roughly and hastily done, judging from the numerous puncture wounds that kept bleeding…

Muffled moans of fright and pain could be heard, if there was anybody around that cared…

Danny's vision cleared eventually, as did the sitar music. However, the music was replaced by laughter. Lots of laughter. Seemingly familiar voices among the laughter…. Looking around, he saw dimly illuminated forms surrounding him. And he knew things were about to go south.

Plasmius… Technus… Skulker… Walker… These were at the forefront of the makeshift gang that surrounded him. Other notable damned figures of his past included such foes as Desiree, Penelope Spectra, "Posion Ivy" Sam, Pharaoh Tuck, and… wait a minute… The Joker, Shao Kahn, and Albert Wesker? What was going on? Killer Croc made his giant presence known with deep guttural chuckles. Handsome Jack had a sinister grin on his face, looking as though he was mentally coming up with a diatribe of arrogant taunting. A 2-foot tall, insanely-old man that went by the odd name of Happosai cackled with glee while…sniffing a pair of Ember's panties?

If all the world's worst souls ended up in Hell, it would seem like the young halfa just got sent there. Either that or the planet's biggest supervillain convention to plot planetary domination. Danny couldn't help but notice a few villains casually munching on Cheetos and Funyuns while observing his torment. Odd… Deathstroke stepped up, gripping his metal bo staff in a fighting stance and pausing as if challenging the hero to come at him.

From Danny's right, Doctor Octopus lurched forward, walking on his metal legs while anxiously punching his open palm with a fist in a threatening manner. From his left, the ever-cruel Agent Smith emerged, wearing his clean suit and shades that gave off that aura of cold-hearted, mechanical professionalism. He calmly cracked his knuckles, anticipating the 'deletion' of another parasite. Among the chorus of triumphant evil laughter, Danny heard a familiar noise from behind him, almost like a whisper in comparison. "Ch...ch…ch...ah…ah…ah…" He didn't have to look behind to know that the near-invincible Jason Voorhees had targeted him.

The crowd seemed to step back a couple of feet, giving the four chosen villains enough room to deal a beating. Nervous, he took a wild look around the room. Somehow, despite the mass of evil gathered close together, he saw someone he didn't recognize, standing in between a hackey-sack tossing Mumm-Ra and Ganondorf. It was a woman. She appeared to be relatively young, with long dark hair, decorated with a red headband. Her clothing appeared to be quite strange: blue bell-bottom jeans, red birkenstock boots, and what looked like a yellow tank top that somehow had arm sleeves. Something seemed off about the unknown woman…

As if knowing that she caught Danny's gaze, she smiled and gave him the V-shaped peace sign. Then she snapped her fingers.

Everything disappeared into multicolor sitar madness again….

The ground. The first thing that Danny felt when the music stopped and the colors drained again. He opened his eyes (not even realizing that they were shut) to see that he was face down in the dirt. Wait… Dirt? Weren't they in a mall? Shaking his head, he started to push himself up when he heard a feminine groan from his right. Taking a look, he spotted Ember lying next to him, also on her stomach. Concerned, he first gave her a gentle nudge with a hand. "Ember?" he croaked, his throat dry somehow. She moaned again. "Baby, wake up. I don't think we're out of the woods yet." he pleaded, lightly but urgently shaking her shoulder.

Ember stirred, turning herself over before opening her eyes, which were bloodshot. "Tell me my mouth works fine…" she muttered. Danny gave her a confused look, wondering what kind of trip she was on. If it was anything like his, he probably didn't want to know. "It's perfect… C'mon. Hopefully, we're not in serious trouble anymore." was his response as he lifted himself up to his feet before helping her up. Their surroundings, consisting of a walled-off section of land with TV monitors that floated in midair. Each screen either displayed an eye or the teal lips of the foe, a familiar sight from the mall fountain area.

"The first time is always the roughest, isn't it, Brother Danny and Sister Ember…? Don't worry, things are about to start becoming exciting. Welcome to the land beyond the Doors of Perception, outside the boundaries of your mind….and into the boundaries of the collective unconsciousness. To simplify matters for narcs like you, you're only enclosed in a microscopic dot of an area here. Mostly because I really don't expect you to get beyond this. Either way, enlightenment will grace you. So, be blessed." the teal lips spoke, a pleased smile forming.

"Yeah, thanks for the high vote of confidence, bitch…" Ember shot back, placing emphasis on the word 'high' for obvious effect. In response, the screens floated downward until they hovered a few feet away, a foot higher than Danny's height. Out of nowhere, bodies appeared beneath the monitors, about as tall and buff as the best bodybuilders and all wearing what appear to be rent-a-cop uniforms. The monitors served to act as the bodies' heads. Immediately, the squad of six TV-headed cops drew metal nightsticks and charged at the couple.

Danny and Ember barely dodged the initial swings, due to their bodies still feeling lethargic from their psychotic experience. Unfortunately, Danny couldn't dodge a second barrage as a backhanded nightstick caught him across the face, sending him tumbling back a few feet, collapsed on the ground. Ember decided to take a tumble, letting herself fall and sloppily rolling backwards so that the nightstick swings harmlessly pass by above her. Frantic, she logrolls a few feet away in an attempt to gain some space between her and the 'SWAT-bots'. Thankfully, the enemy was distracted when an ecto-blast clipped one on its ass. The funny thing was that it leapt up and grabbed its burned ass in a cartoon-like manner, the only thing missing being a shout of "YEOW!".

Ember and the swat-bots looked over to see Danny lying on his stomach, a glowing hand aimed toward the rent-a-cops and a smirk on his face. "I think it's time somebody cleaned up the police force around here." Danny said just before the diverted minions were blindsided by the playing of an electric guitar and a wave of energy blasts shaped like fists that peppered all six of them. They were battered but nowhere close to beaten. Strategically, the squad split up to deal with the separated threats, three to a foe.

The mess of a battle deteriorated into a giant cat-and-mouse game where Danny and Ember both used hit-and-run tactics. A power punch here, a kick there, a guitar smash over there, an ice beam that froze a swat-bot's legs to the ground here, all while ducking and dodging. It reminded Danny of playing Skyrim when his character would try to hack and slash a bigger, tougher enemy. Stick and move, stick and move. Float like a halfa, sting like… well… like a knight with a legendary sword facing a dragon.

Noting that his cryokinetic powers seemed to do a decent job of slowing them down, Danny first fired ice beams at their legs, freezing them in place. "Such a square…" scoffed the teal lips on the screen-head of one of the swat-bots. "Me? You're the one sending these techno-pigs after us. Wouldn't you be the narc now?" Danny answered as he fired a beam at the offending cop's legs, shattering them along with the ice. The mouthy monitor shattered as it hit a conveniently-placed rock on the ground face first, the rest of the body caught up in frantic spasms which were hopefully its death throes. The other two, however, were trying to club their legs free with their nightsticks, the ice slowly being chipped away.

The halfa opted to not give them a chance. Aiming both his hands at both opponents' frozen legs, he fired two blasts. As luck would have it, the two swat-bots were smart enough to attempt to protect themselves, both opting to swat at the blast with their giant bulky free hands. With two explosions of energy, the cops succeeded in saving their legs but at the cost of the hands that weren't holding nightsticks. "Haa… Even enlightened beings must learn to let go of lesser things for the greater good…" chimed the hippie head honcho as the cops tried harder to crack their legs free from their icy prisons.

"Kinda lame, since I could always, oh I dunno, fire more!" Danny fired back, launching more ecto-blasts at the minions. With more speed than the halfa thought they had, the minions swung their nightsticks like miniature baseball bats, knocking away the incoming beams of energy with shocking accuracy. "Ok… So the loss of hands was another psych-out…"

Meanwhile, Ember was having similar trouble, if not worse since she hasn't even defeated one of her three opponents yet. "Might as well embrace the high, Sister Ember… You're already buzzed, I can tell." the slurred tone of their hidden enemy droned on, sounding oddly amused rather than annoyed. That only seemed to piss off the rock diva even more. "How about you buzz off, ya junkie?!"

Ember, having noticed the minions' uniforms, made a mad dash toward the nearest one. More specifically, she was aiming for the uniform's belt, which appeared to have numerous police equipment. Thrown off guard by the unexpected action, the guards were stalled enough for her to reach out and quickly pull out a random piece of equipment. Pepper spray. With not a moment to spare, she shrugged and sprayed the mace upward into the monitor screen, figuring that things couldn't get any worse.

As if reality couldn't get any more warped, the monitor of the sprayed guard immediately started to go static and crackled with electricity as the guard's body started to stumble around, blindly swinging its nightstick anywhere and everywhere. The nearby guard tried to back up, but ended up smashed on the shoulder by an errant swing as the blinded minion staggered about. Noticing the contact, the blind one lurched forward and swung repeatedly at the torso and legs of the guard he hit, believing that he found Ember. As a result, the two guards got into a nightstick brawl with each other, leaving Ember and the last swat-bot to face off against each other.

"Sister Ember, you are starting to be a total buzzkill... Disappointing…" crooned the disembodied voice of the enemy, the monitor head of the remaining guard displaying the now-familiar teal lips. Ember, her 'axe' drawn and ready, smirked in defiance as she raised her hand to rock out a power chord. "Well, good. I'm about to rock you into rehab, bitch!"

Back with Danny, the halfa figured that the remaining two enemies' monitor-heads could be their weakness, especially after his peripheral vision managed to catch Ember's use of pepper spray. He wondered why he didn't think of that strategy sooner. All this distortion of reality must be finally getting to him… Putting all thoughts of mental stress aside, he aimed two ice blasts at the now-freed opposition, but instead of aiming low like before, the sub-zero energy hit them right in their 'faces', encasing the animated tech in ice.

Danny must've been in a particularly cheeky mood, seeing as the ice he had created around the monitor-heads looked like the swat-bots now had snowman heads, carrot-nose and all. In a predictably half-witted fashion, the cops instantly swung their nightsticks at their own heads, breaking through the ice but also killing themselves by smashing through their plasma-screened faces. Double headshot.

"….I'm so going to need another batch of special brownies after this…" moaned the mysterious zombie, eliciting a series of dry chuckles from herself. Laughter or not, Danny had a feeling that she was actually rather annoyed by her lack of progress. Well, if she had any sense, anyway… Or if she was at least sober. Maybe? Could this villain even be angry? Or just sadistic? The halfa took off to help Ember finish off her last minion.

The final swat-bot apparently learned the need for self-preservation as it kept blocking or avoiding Ember's repeated blasts, punches, jump kicks, and guitar smashes that were aimed at its head. Fortunately for Ember, it couldn't counterattack as long as she kept the pressure up. "Poor Sister Ember… Still flailing helplessly in the face of new ideas. How closed-minded. C'mon, baby, light your fire… Commune with me and be free." slurred the green mouth on the TV screen, its very presence appearing to taunt the fiery diva.

The disembodied hippie was interrupted by a certain halfa. "Tune out, turn off, and drop on outta our lives already!" he said, forming an icicle sword in his right hand and jamming it into the back of the monitor-head, cutting right through and impaling the deadly figment of imagination. The lifeless drone collapsed and hit the ground before fading away to nothingness. Right as the last of the minion vanished, the enclosed space they were in started to flicker and warp, as if losing stability.

Before long, the scenery blurred out and faded to nothingness, leaving the two heroes stuck in a void of black nothingness. Until they blinked anyway, when it was revealed that they were in the comic book store the whole time, the entire place having been completely trashed by the couple's use of their ghost powers, burns here and chunks of ice there. Broken tables, destroyed and torn comic books and collectibles, an iced-over cash register, trading cards everywhere. Danny's ice sword from moments ago was impaled through the forehead of a life-size Hulk cardboard cutout.

"What the…?! Did we do this…?" Danny exclaimed, a little unnerved by the idea that they were apparently fighting illusions, unwittingly trashing public property. It reminded him of the time that FreakShow brought Circus Gothica to town, wielding a certain mind-controlling orb…

"The bitch's stepping up her game. Perhaps we're starting to get to her." Ember sneered, passively picking up a frost-covered issue of Catwoman. How fitting a choice, considering….

"Yeah. She's gotten sloppy too. I think I know where she's keeping herself, no thanks to what she threw at us. It's time to file a complaint to Mall Security…"

The security office being at the other side of the mall, the couple decided to fly over, but with the exception of a manageable horde of zombies shambling nearby the offshoot hallway they needed to go, they made it relatively quickly. The door to the Mall Security department looked as normal as the rest of the mall hallways and corridors, but the duo was understandably tense. The only thing predictable about this foe was that whatever she had in store would likely have something to do with stoner culture…

"Can't believe I'm about to 'turn myself in'…" Ember jokingly grumbled. "Well, first time for everything…" She added a dismissive 'whoop-de-doo' type of hand gesture to further ham up her disdain.

"We're just doing some 'community service', babe. Not like we're facing the death penalty." Danny replied, placing a hand on the door handle. The time was upon them. It was hard enough to prepare for a calculating, focused, hateful (and most importantly, sober) force of evil and aggression. But the hero complex in Danny understood that evil came in many flavors, some more… reckless than others. If he could stand up to the madness of Pariah Dark, he could stand up to complete unpredictability itself.

"Yeah, yeah, Dipstick. If we're lucky, the mall's new chief pig'll be turned into a bacon factory." Ember said, punching her palm with a fist before cracking her knuckles. With that, the halfa pushed down on the door handle, the door opening with a soft click.

Within a moment's instant, Danny and Ember found themselves tumbling out through what now appeared to be a car door. Limbs flailing in midair, they felt the strange sensation of gravity actually shifting its alignment, resulting in the couple falling back the way they tumbled, landing on the closed car door of a police SWAT van. Groaning from the harsh landing, they sat up and looked around them. The sky, if one could call it that, was nothing but a bizarre menagerie of stock images. An eye, signs with different hippie slogans, the weed insignia, hearts, Woodstock, 60's protesting, Janis Joplin, and so forth. The scenes and images appeared around and above them, giving the strange visual perception of being dome-like.

The ground they were standing on was no less mind-altering. It was a SWAT van alright….stretched, warped, twisted around, and fused together in such a way that it looked like they were standing on a giant metal doughnut, a large hole in the center of the vehicular landmass. Speaking of which, something small began to rise out of that hole…

Danny remembered the nightmare-like illusion he was momentarily trapped in as soon as he saw the woman levitating in a crosslegged sitting position. The strange woman among the rogue's gallery of villains! She hovered closer to them. "Ah, Brother Danny, Sister Ember… I'm glad we could finally meet, face to face….to face…." she slurred, a happy smile on her face. A lot of villains would typically fake being pleased for the sake of sarcastic banter or a mind game, but this woman actually seemed genuinely happy. Odd, considering…

The couple immediately noticed something else about her smile… It seemed a little TOO wide. Then they saw why as she floated even closer… She was definitely undead, there could be no mistake. Her lips had apparently been sliced apart at both sides, all the way up to her ears. The long cuts were sewn back together, making her smile almost have a Joker-style permanence to it. As with the TV screens, her lips were teal in color. Whatever had cut her mouth had also tried to cut her face off, as her forehead also had a sewn-up gash all the way across. Same with her neck and chest, that particular series of deep cuts creating a Y shape (or T, depending on the angle you see her) to it, across the neck and straight down her chest. Her polychromatic eyes were also the same ones that mocked them via TV screen. Her skin was a sickly pale-green, giving the appearance (and suspicion) that her corpse's decomposition was progressing…

In her hands and resting on her lap was, of course, a sitar which she was lazily plucking random strings of.

"You look like you lost a fight with a butcher! Smell like it too… Whew!" Ember bluntly stated, fanning a hand over her nose.

"Which leads me to my next point… Don't smoke crack! Seriously, who chops up a woman?" Danny said, trying not to think about this particular enemy's origin. Maybe she was stoned and, in her high stupor, came across a serial killer? A hippie love fest gone totally wrong when her lover somehow brought a machete into play? No, must not think too much on it!

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm fine. Besides, as an enlightened being, appearances mean little. So… haaa…. Now that you've experienced the liberating freedom of chaos, would you like to join me in a good love-in? You're certainly quite interesting company… more than the last squares that I've come across, anyway. Yes, yes indeed..." the woman droned on, strumming her sitar in a peaceful tune. She tilted her head in curiosity, as if expecting a positive answer instead of a fight.

"A 'love-in'…?" Ember asked, throwing in air-quotes for emphasis. "Are you seriously asking us to 'hang out' after your repeated attempts to destroy us? You off your freakin' rocker?!" she asked, drawing her guitar for what seemed like the hundredth time today. The zombie woman simply nodded.

"Well, why not? I admit that I was also hired to… ah… 'take care' of you two by some old narc. Seemed a bit high-strung, that one… It was like he hasn't had a relaxing time in years. What a square…" she played an intentionally sour note as she said 'Square'.

"Wait… Old?" Danny cut in. In his mind, his list of suspects had suddenly narrowed.

The woman shrugged. "Well, not like some fogey in a retirement home, but he's no spring chicken either. Gray hair, done up in a ponytail. Talked all fancy-like, as if he was The Man… Hiding his true power like a snake in grass. Totally harshed my vibe, man…"

"Vlad!" Both Danny and Ember said, the former resigned to facepalming in frustration. Why were they not surprised that the corrupt Mayor of Amity would unleash mega-powered forces of darkness upon the town?

"Heh… That's the narc's name? Wow, even his name's a total buzzkill…" The woman's smirk looked so weird with her sewn-up cuts. For a moment, a mere moment, the trio stood there in total agreement. That in itself was pretty psychedelic…

"Anyways, my friends, where were we? Oh yes… My name is Mariska. I already know who you two are… So, flow on, children…" she said, a bubble suddenly forming around herself while floating back to hover above the center of the hole. "Flow on and embrace the sensation of everlasting peace… and rot!" With that sudden exclamation and a strong strum of the sitar, the realm around them suddenly seemed to 'feel' malevolent, if that made any sense… Both young ghosts suddenly felt a power building up from Mariska herself. Battle time.

"This is your idea of a love-in?!" Danny said, firing an ecto-beam at Mariska, which hit the bubble, but didn't go through. A force-field, of course. In response, the force-field bubble spat out more bubbles which shot out toward Danny and Ember. The two flew away from the incoming bubbles, pretty sure that they're a lot less innocent than they appeared.

"Definitely so, Brother Danny. The living are confined and limited in what they can experience. The boundless joys of an unchained mind can only be discovered upon joining my ranks…" Mariska crooned, waving a hand in the air as if trying to conjure up something. And 'something' did come up. From the hole emerged a giant version of her right hand, the very hand that they had seen on the distorted football field earlier! It came down toward them like it was trying to swat a fly. Then, revealing that it's cut off at the wrist, the hand began to chase after them along the ring platform as if it were Thing from the Addams Family, all while Mariska fired more bubbles at them.

Ember and Danny took any chance they could to fire ecto-blasts and energy soundwaves while weaving themselves around the hippie's projectiles. After a few hits on Mariska's force field, she herself vanished. The giant hand stilled finger-walked its way after the couple, though. Then, across the way, they found her… Driving a red firetruck that happened to be heading toward them along the militaristically-artistic ring. Sandwiched between incoming dangers, Ember saw only one way out of this. Nudging Danny and subtly hinting skyward, both teens tensed up. Waiting… A couple more seconds…

And then they leapt up and flew, causing the hand and the firetruck to crash into each other, tumbling over the side and fading out of existence, Mariska reappearing over the 'donut hole' again. "Nice strategy, if a tad cheap." she politely said, strumming her sitar like she hadn't done anything violent at all. Ember played a loud riff of her guitar, energy fists crashing against the tougher-than-it-looks bubble. It still had little effect. Danny added his ice beams to the assault. The stream of ice slammed against the bubble, seemingly doing nothing. However, Danny noticed the bubble slowly accumulating a layer of frost on it…

"Haa… Giving me the cold shoulder? Heavy…" Mariska murmured with a smile, once again sending bubbles toward them. Danny skillfully avoided them, but Ember's foot nicked one of them as she dodged, causing it to pull her into it. Immediately, she noticed the danger of these bubbles as terriible pressure was suddenly applied to her from all sides, as if the bubble was a portable trash compactor. "Speaking of heavy… Hehehehe…" giggled Mariska, watching Ember squirm and be inadvertently drawn into the fetal position.

"Ember!"

Danny hurriedly flew over to Ember, barely ducking another thrown bubble, and tried blasting it. Nothing, just like Mariska's force field. He threw a power punch at it. Nothing still. Hearing Ember moan and shriek in pain, he began to panic. Then, remembering the wacky properties of some of the twisted realms they visited, he used his cryokenesis to create an icicle with a very sharp point on the end. He simply popped the bubble, releasing Ember. "Dammit… Now I understand claustrophobes…" Ember groaned, plopping herself on the ground as she tried to loosen up her squeezed, sore body. Growling, Danny tossed the icicle toward Mariska's bubble like a shuriken.

Mariska placed another bubble in the way of the icicle, Danny's weapon popping it instead of doing anything against her. "I bet you could throw a killer hacky-sack, Brother Danny…" she said, almost looking like she was picturing the idea in her head. Danny quickly threw a group of icicles at her in response, conjuring them up as quickly as he could make throwing motions. Not being able to fire off bubbles as quickly, the icicles impaled themselves on the force field but they got stuck there. Still, better than nothing…

"Sack this, hippie!" Danny exclaimed, firing an ice blast that again slowly froze up the bubble she was in. As it became solid enough, cracks began to form around the stuck icicles. The flighty part of Mariska's mind admired the beauty of the shimmering colors of frozen bubble and its growing cracks. The tiny, almost microscopic part of the hippie-zombie's brain that actually still soberly recognized things going on knew she needed a better plan. Eventually, when Ember cranked her guitar's power setting to max and played one hell of a chord, the bubble shattered upon impact, sending Mariska down to the other side of the ring platform, dazed.

"Ambition, pride, nourishment, prayers… courage, despair, atonement, chaos…" she rambled as she sat there, acting as if whatever she was getting a constant high on finally came back to bite her. Realizing an opportunity, Ember quickly flew toward her, guitar drawn in battle axe style. "Yo, bitch! You need help!" Ember said in distaste as she brought her guitar down on Mariska's head. Surprisingly (or perhaps not, considering past foes), the guitar cut straight down, slicing her head in half, as well as her neck… and then, with Ember pushing down, her chest… Then, tuning out the hippie's shrieks of pain, finally cutting through her stomach and out her groin, leaving two halves of undead hippie floating apart.

"Ok, there's no way this one can survive that. Vertical cuts! That's the way to go!" Ember said as Danny floated over to join her. "Right, Baby-Pop?"

"I don't see how she could. But either way, it was a fair fight. I mean, after all, things certainly were called…right down the middle!" he said, snickering at his own joke. Ember looked unimpressed. 'Why is he my boyfriend again…?' she half-heartedly thought.

"Aww, c'mon, Flame… That was a good one." grumbled Danny, having noticed her silence and her patented 'That's Not Funny' frown. Before Ember could reply, a feminine voice did laugh…

"Yes, it certainly was funny… Brother Danny…"

Both turned to where the two halves of Mariska were haphazardly floating like two strips of torn paper…only to find said halves sticking straight up, glaring at them as if they were still one being. Both teens gaped.

"Wha…? But… But… HOW?!" Ember cried out, her old villainess instincts infuriated that this enemy had the nerve to defy certain re-death. She had cut right through the zombie brain, after all. Then again, Zed also had an easy time repairing his sliced head earlier… Even so, the fact that Mariska could survive having her body torn vertically in half was surprising, even for zombies.

"One truth becomes two…" the hippie said, almost like a mantra. Immediately, blood and ectoplasm started gushing from the wounds as something grew out of both halves. A couple of seconds later, there floated two complete Mariskas, both with shit-eating grins like she had just stumped a narc cop with a punchline. Both then grasped their chests… and pulled?

"Two truths become FOUR!"

With a sickening tear, the string that sewn up her vertical chest wounds was torn as they pulled herselves vertically apart, four halves of Mariska floating helpless before their missing halves regenerated again, creating four whole clones in a show of blood!

Danny and Ember, although curious of how strong this tactic had made the hippie now, were relatively nonplussed by her actions. Especially considering… "I've seen that trick before." Danny said, offhandedly. "Although I know a less painful way of doing that. Here, I'll demonstrate!" he said, instantly creating three clones of himself. Each of the clones got in a fighting stance, ready. "See? Four of you and four of me. With Ember here, you're outnumbered!"

The four Dannys launched themselves at the four Mariskas before they could start a new battle plan. It grew obvious that Mariska wasn't an expert of actual physical combat, relying more on her abilities and mind games, as each Danny seemed to gain the upper hand on every Mariska. Her only physical ability seemed to be a spin attack where she would telekinetically make herself spin around with her flailing limbs acting like nunchucks in a sense. But that wasn't much of a problem for Danny.

Ember didn't really have to do much of anything as her four boyfriends chased, pummeled, and threw the Mariskas about. Soon enough, one was weakened enough to burst out of existence with a pop. Then another. And then the third. Duplicates, just like with Danny. The last hippie, the real deal, was oddly silent. Not even strumming her sitar anymore. Her Joker-like grin seemed more like a Joker-like scowl. Danny began wondering what a high person is like when they're actually angry while high…

"One truth becomes two…" Mariska tore herself in half again, the regeneration factor happening slightly quicker. "Two truths become four...!" The sound of ripping cloth and flesh never ceased to sound disgusting to the heroes… However, before the Dannys could start another fight… "Four truths become EIGHT!"

Yep. Eight.

Danny gulped. "What's wrong, Dipstick? Just create four more." Ember said, not sure why the group of halfa clones suddenly seemed defensive and cautious.

"I… can only make four. Any more and I start to lose focus, the clones get unstable, and I'm short on power for a while…" Danny explained. Ember paled. Everyone's powers had certain limits. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time or place to reach a limit!

"Great… Meanwhile, we got ourselves a whole damn commune out for our heads…" Ember stormed as the eight Mariskas had created force fields around themselves and had formed a ring around themselves over the giant hole, spinning around in an attempt to dare their targets to fire away. "Jeez, ONE force field was a problem!"

"On it!" Danny replied as he created and chucked more icicles at the 8 circling clones. Instead of sticking to the shields, the icicles immediately popped whatever bubbles they hit. The clones inside immediately teleported away before the sharp spikes of ice hit them.

"Huh… Weaker shields… I don't think I'm the only one with limits on cloning." Danny said, just as the rest of the Mariskas decided to vanish. They doubted that she was leaving them alone. Why would she at this point? Their doubts were realized when, from out of the hole rose a giant space rocket! It rose until its boosters were level with them. The smaller boosters then faced outward and started spewing intense fire while the rocket rotated around. Danny and Ember would've flown high above it, were it not for the Mariska clones suddenly clouding the area above them with numerous trap bubbles. Their only option was to just keep outrunning the fire.

"Shit…! I knew I'd probably get fired someday, but not like this!" the halfa complained as he ran, suddenly really glad that his leg healed up as soon as it did.

"Ya know… this is probably… revenge for your ice powers… Dipstick!" Ember panted, hurrying alongside her boyfriend. She was a fire-type ghost but rocket booster flame was too intense, even for her. If she were to flare her hair up and curl it around it for a fire shield, the rocket fuel would cook right through it and her.

Fortunately for the both of them, the rocket itself faded away after another minute of running, the eight Mariskas swirling around the hole again, all of them shielded. "If their shields are weaker, we should be able to get to 'em with some force now. She needs an intervention anyway." Danny quipped, powering up his hands. Ember smirked, turning a knob on her guitar, setting her power to 'Lightning'.

With that, the duo fired away at the eight enemies, ecto-beams and lightning bolts striking the bubble shields. Three shields popped and the Mariskas inside teleported away again before they could be finished off. Two of them reappeared, driving firetrucks again as they both drive in opposite directions converging in on Danny and Ember. Seeing that they were sandwiched again, they waited until the last second before leaping upward, letting the trucks crash into each other. Landing on top of the wrecked illusions, they pressed on, managing to pop the bubbles of 2 more zombie-hippies. One of them failed to escape the wrath of Ember's guitar lightning.

Upon that first Mariska's end, the sky around them seem to shimmer and flicker as if something were wrong. More bubbles were sent their way, forcing them to dodge and weave again. All that did was slow their assault and annoy the heroes. More firetrucks? Just another leap over an obstacle. At one point, the Mariskas even threw some miniature napalm bombs toward them, just for ironic measure.

"Napalm?! I thought hippies were anti-war!" the halfa complained, hovering his way away from the explosions.

"News flash, this hippie isn't exactly hugging it out here!" Ember yelled back, managing to swat a bomb back at a Mariska like a baseball.

"So, what, does that mean we have ourselves a hippie-hipster or something? I mean, going for the irony factor…?" Danny asked, managing to blast the head off of another Mariska that was driving yet another firetruck.

"A what? Ugh…! That's terrible!" the diva groused as she herself brained a Mariska with an energy fist before it could teleport off after her bubble was popped. As more Mariskas were defeated, the sky seemed to look less stable, with some of the images flickering or just dimming out altogether. All the while, the hippies were muttering strange sayings in a strained tone…

"Hear the thunder and rage of the people… Piss on the graves of the fallen warriors… And pray your soul rot away…!" was merely a sample of Mariska's ramblings. It was hard to tell if she actually cared about the battle anymore. On one hand, she seemed to be throwing anything and everything she could at them. On the other, she didn't appear to be paying attention at all, as if she was fighting by instinct alone.

Three Mariskas remained after five minutes of continuous battle, the two heroes exhausted after such constant dodging of deadly bubbles, oncoming vehicles, and the occasional napalm bomb shower. "Time is always cruel… Iron is always cold… Flames always burn…" Mariska droned, sounding as if she were tiring.

Ember quickly flung her guitar like a giant boomerang at one of the three remaining hippies, managing to burst the bubble and tear off her head by its neck wound before her body faded into nonexistence. At the same time, Danny had created a clone of himself. The clone, going invisible, hurriedly floated behind one of the remaining Mariskas that Ember hadn't attacked, careful to avoid any of the remaining trap bubbles that were floating around. When Ember's guitar struck the bubble, so did the now-visible Danny Clone, impaling the bubble and the Mariska within with long broadswords made of ice. Pulling the swords apart in opposite directions, he managed to horizontally slice the hippie clone in half, her remains fading away like papers caught in flame. The Danny clone merged back with the original.

And then there was one.

All it took was one ecto-blast from Danny and one fireball from Ember's hair to pop the last bubble, sending Mariska tumbling back, hitting the ground again. Like before, she seemed dazed, mumbling more nonsense.

"Close your eyes, sweet…. Freedom you cannot defeat… The happy have no need to cheat…."

Danny and Ember rushed over to her, not wanting to give her any opportunity. They circled the ring to Mariska in opposite directions, hoping to crush her between their attacks, a classic pincer strategy. The halfa poured power into his fists, the diva's guitar brimming with energy.

Danny swung. Ember swung.

The entire realm shattered like glass, bright white light enveloping everything…

The halfa opened his eyes, finding himself on the ground, face and bad leg hurting again. The scenery looked strangely familiar. Was he…? He moved his head to look around. Yes, he was in the central area of the mall, where he and Ember had first landed when they abruptly entered after the Vikke fight! Stumbling to get to his feet, having to get used to a bad leg again, he hobbled over to the fountain to take a look. His face was nothing but bruises and a mask of dried blood from the battle with the deranged viking.

He had never healed (as much).

He had never cleaned up his face.

They hadn't left the fountain area.

Then that means….. the whole mall experience was an illusion from the start!

He saw Ember dazedly attempt to stand up and wondered if they had both shared the same illusion or if the Ember he had fought the entire mall with was just part of the delusion. A choking noise started the duo out of their thoughts. Looking up toward the second floor, they saw the last thing they wanted to see, perched on the guard railing like a bird of prey.

Mariska.

The zombie-hippie seemed to be in a sort of agony, though. A closer look revealed that some of the strings that have kept her chest and neck together had been cut and torn, blood oozing out of the now-reopened wounds. Her long greasy hair was in shambles, mussed up.

"You… beat my high… Very depressing, man…" she said, voice heavy with pain. "Won't that old narc… blow a gasket when he… finds out about this…? I guess that's one silver lining for me…"

Feeling that he has just enough power to do this, Danny flew up toward her, ecto-power filling his fist again. Realizing that the young hero intended to finish her, Mariska smiled and lifted a hand. But instead of conjuring any sort of offense, she merely flashed him the V-shaped peace sign. "Heavy, Brother Danny… Peace out… WAY out…."

With two punches, the deed was done. One punch broke through her sitar, the enchanted instrument crumbling to the ground, flickering with dying power before just becoming harmless broken pieces of wood and string. The second punch tore her head right off her shoulders, sending it flying far back down the opposing walkway. The lifeless body fell forward off its perch, landing with a wet thump on the ground. Ironically, the body landed on the rim of the water fountain, inches from a somewhat softer landing (although it obviously didn't matter at that point).

"Go find your White Rabbit elsewhere, Mariska…" Danny said with solemn finality. A part of him couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the crazed 60's flower child. Despite everything, she just didn't seem all that evil. Her mind wasn't all there, for sure. But evil? He wasn't so sure. Either way, he knew she wouldn't be one to stop with her fatal illusions, no matter what her intentions were.

"A Jefferson Airplane reference? Hmm… Good choice, Baby-Pop. You're at least learning how to choose fitting music. See, I'm a good influence!" Ember said, putting an arm around him as he landed, having noticed him limping moments ago. She didn't do it to be sappy, she's doing it to be helpful. At least that's what she kept telling herself.

"Ugh… Babe, don't say anything about 'influence'… As a matter of fact, don't mention drugs, mushrooms, stoners, or the word 'high' for a while either. I could use a good dose of reality right now." Danny groaned as the couple walked toward the nearest exit, Ember helping him along as his healing factor kicked in. Before leaving, Danny washed his face at the fountain to get the dried blood off. He noticed that some of the bruises have lightened up and the big cut on his forehead had already gotten to the point where it won't bleed anymore.

"I'm tired of shopping…" sighed Ember. This venture had proved once again that she would never understand teen girls that spend all their free time hunting for sales at malls. Nope. No way. Not her.

Tucker Foley had picked up his beret of the ground for the seventh time today. He had finally dealt with the last of the zombies that had infested the outer perimeter of the mall. It took him a while and it tested his mettle as the young techie was forced to be more alert than he was on the internet, making sure that the undead don't shuffle up to him from behind and making sure that they're completely dead if his Fenton weapons knocked them down but didn't get a headshot.

Helping Danny with ghosts was one thing, as Danny tended to shoulder most of the fighting. Being a zombie hunter was a challenge. But Tucker was glad that he could handle himself alright. Not just because he survived unscathed, but because a part of him felt like he was contributing to the heroic efforts of Team Phantom, like he was actually a team player as opposed to feeling like he's on the sidelines.

The sound of a door swinging open caused him to turn toward the sound, aiming a Fenton Laser at the source, in case it was yet another zombie. His face softened when he saw the familiar black-and-white of his best friend, being helped along lightly by his ghostly girlfriend. To Tucker, it still seemed surreal that Danny managed to form a relationship with the former villainess. Seeing the rock-n-roll diva supporting the obviously limping Danny was another piece of hard evidence that things do indeed change.

"What, 'Friar Tuck'? I thought we covered that I'm on your side now." Ember snipped, having noticed how Tucker had aimed at them before he actually saw them.

"Wha? I know, Ember. Sorry. I just… Well… Umm…" Tucker stammered, quickly holstering the anti-undead gun while his face went slightly red. Danny chuckled at this.

"Relax, Tucker. We know you had a fight on your hands. You get 'em all?" Danny asked, promptly going back to business. Despite the current struggle being over, there was still the matter of Vlad, not to mention the other mercenary that Valerie had cornered in the Arcade…

"Yeah. At least I hope so. Jeez… What's going on anyway, man? Fright Knight bring the Halloween on way too early?" the African-American teen asked, a little nervous. Zombies. Freakin' zombies…

"Worse. Vlad's at it again. Apparently, this is part of his latest 'mayoral decree'. He's somehow hired this group of superpowered undead and put a bounty on my head. My guess is that he sorely underestimated their power. Either that, or he just doesn't give a shit anymore. I'm willing to bet it's the second option." Danny explained, scowling at the thought of the older halfa sitting in City Hall. Even Ember had figured that Vlad's gig as Mayor was purely a power play against Team Phantom. Then again, Ember's teenage predisposition against adult authority figures helped. The reputation of Vlad Plasmius was icing on Ember's hate-cake.

"I think we all know he'd go off the deep end eventually… So how many mercs we talking about here?" Tucker asked, taking out his beloved PDA.

"Well, we just eliminated our third one inside the mall. Don't ask. It was quite a headache… Valerie says she cornered some goon inside the Arcade. New foe with crazy powers. Sounds like another of Vlad's new 'friends'. I'm hoping this'll be the last asshole. Speaking of assholes…" Danny put a finger on the Fenton Phones. "Phantom to Team Phantom. Anyone copy?"

"Still stalking that guy, Danny." Red Huntress immediately responded. "Seems awful quiet in there. I think I should bust on in there and whip his ass before he does something."

"Alright, Val. We're freed up and on our way. Don't do anything until we get there."

Another voice joined the conversation. "I copy too, Danny. Emergency broadcasts are going nuts this morning! I can't believe we actually have a body count…" Sam said. Apparently, word about Zed and the fourth mercenary's deadly rampages didn't take long to hit the local media.

"Yeah… Vlad's gone too far this time."

"Vlad? He's a power-hungry asshole, but he wouldn't just murder people because he can."

"He doesn't. His new minions do. I still dunno all the specifics, but apparently he stumbled upon a group of superpowered zombie assassins or something and decided to put a bounty and mine and Ember's heads."

"Wait… Zombie assassins?"

"Don't tell me you like the idea…" Danny facepalmed. He should've known that the concept of zombified hitmen sounds just Gothic enough for his best friend's tastes.

"Gotta admit that it sounds like a kickass movie. But go on."

"Well, not much more to go on with. Ember and I were heading out to breakfast when this all started going down."

"Yeah, Dani and I were just finishing breakfast when the news started going on about it."

"Dani's there? Another 'sleepover', I assume." Danny asked with a smirk, referring to his best friend/ex-girlfriend's newfound lesbianism with Danny's clone, Danielle. Boy, was THAT surprising to discover…

"Yeah…" Sam sighed, just knowing that he's smirking about it.

"Well, since Dani's getting stronger lately, you think you two would wanna 'pay Vlad a visit' while I help Val tackle this next merc? We're thinking he's the last one, but still, the sooner Vlad's dealt with, the better. Hell, we might be able to figure out how many he actually sent against us, maybe even how to stop them quicker."

"Sure. Just…um… let us get dressed…"

Danny went red. "Uhh….. What…?"

"We're just in t-shirts and lingerie because we weren't planning to leave the house, you goof! What else would we need to get dressed from?!" Sam exclaimed. Boys! It's no wonder she felt so liberated when she decided to accept Dani's advances.

"Alright, alright. I get it. Sigh… Let me know if there's a problem." Danny grumbled. He was probably going to get some sort of talking to from her when this was all over.

"Right. Be careful, Danny." Sam said, her annoyance at his gutter-dwelling mind failing to overcome her concern for him. In situations like this, she felt like she couldn't help enough. There he was, fighting for his life, and what could she do? Get in a lucky shot with a Fenton weapon or just happen to be quick enough with a Fenton Thermos. At least his plan of having her and Dani confront Vlad was something, despite the danger the older halfa presented. It was a good thing that the little clone had been training quite a bit ever since the destabilization incident. Now if only they could catch him off guard…

"I'm always careful. Stay safe. Phantom out." replied Danny, trying to sound confident. A part of him knew it was a front, but what else could he do but carry on?

"Now what?" Tucker asked, having been monitoring data streams involving City Hall, in case Vlad had done anything worth noting.

"Time to play at the Arcade."

Meanwhile, in the eerily-quiet mall… On the second floor, near the center of the building, rested a certain head on the floor. Jaw completely unhinged again from the Phantom's final punch, it sort of had the look of a skull with its mouth wide open. Its eyes stared up at the ceiling lifelessly. If Mariska were still alive, the head would've reacted to the green vortex that had suddenly appeared, drawing the head upward toward it.

As it floated up toward what could only be Oblivion, something deep within the essence of the hippie made the head speak one last time…

"Meus vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto…!"

In a place unknown to almost all mortals, in an unknown dimension, a thin hand with long bony fingers held a green aura gently in its grasp as the sounds of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane filled the air. The countless viewscreens depicting just as countless universes slowly scrolled past, with the exception of one which the feminine figure was watching.

Seeing her two new acquaintances discuss matters outside a large building dedicated to human consumerism, Lady Death smiled. Not only did they succeed in their desired goal, but in the end, they helped her gain yet another lost soul. It had always distressed the great spirit when souls managed to escape the afterlife and regain access to Earth, rotting bodies and all. Souls like this one, a relic of an era gone by. One particular upside of regaining rogue souls was that it felt like the first time she claimed those souls, as if the same soul gave her another small boost of power upon recapture, 2 for the price of 1.

"What a soul this one is… Tastes like… grass, the Earth drink called Mountain Dew, and the Earth snack called Cheetos. Interesting…" she purred. The human figure in the shadows looked toward her, giving a grunt of acceptance. "Hm? What's wrong, my dear Wade?"

"Nothing. Just that this two-bit author only gave me a cameo role! Feh… I bet he's just some fat hack living in his mom's basement. HEY! YOU! Yeah, you! The slob reading this! Tell this guy to gimme some action here! Jeez… Worse than Marvel Comics' decision to kill me off…" the man said, wearing a red and black bodysuit with a certain recognizable mask… "Ahem" he interrupted. Of course, a certain recognizable mask that definitely wasn't Spider-Man's but is so much cooler! "Thank you"

"You're certainly funnier than usual tonight, my Wade." Lady Death said with an amused chuckle. "Was it those pieces of giant blasted mushroom you found?"

"Eh? Who cares! They ended up being part of a giant chimichanga I made. At least the place's cleaned up now. Gotta say though… This place looks a lot cooler with that swirling strobe light with vibrant rainbow colors."

"But Deadpool, there is no strobe light here…"

"Uh oh. Shroom attack!"

"Sigh… Have fun, darling."

"Aw, man… Why are you ending this chapter now, Mr. Author? You show off that kid's adventure of him and his chick being high but not mine!? When I get done with these killer mutant pancakes, your ass is next!" Deadpool shouted, before drawing his two katana and charging at…nothing.

Yes, Lady Death did have plenty to keep her amused…

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ** Finally! Jeez… What a chapter… When I had ideas, they just strung together in such a way where this enemy dragged this chapter out into an entire mental campaign! And yes, references galore here!

First, yeah I threw in Deadpool and one of his girlfriends, the Marvel Universe's Grim Reaper herself, Lady Death. As for Death's appearance, I went with the Gothic/Voodoo-tastic version of her that appeared in the Deadpool video game. What can I say? She looked hot.

Secondly, I stand by the random and referential insanity I put in this chapter. Even so, I would gratefully appreciate any feedback. Even negative feedback, as long as it's not trolling/flaming. So please do review.

For more explanations, it's time for my…. Public Review Replies! Not much in the ol' "mailbag" today, but I'll make do.

ARega1s – Yes, definitely play Lollipop Chainsaw. I encourage anyone that likes a fun hack-n-slash adventure game with fanservice to play this game. Seriously. Go play it.

FirstoftheAbyss – Thank you. As for me taking liberties, I've definitely made an original scenario out of the Mariska encounter. I don't think there's any farms around Amity Park anyway. So I figured "why not have a super-hippie trash a mall?". As for little Dani, I've decided to go with the Dani/Sam pairing, which I have originally used in my other DP work, "Comical Relations". I do hope nobody minds.

Spidey2 and Invader Johnny – Thanks, both of you! And Johnny, was this latest chapter weird enough for ya? Lol.

Review please! Thank you in advance.


	5. Total Eclipse Of The 80's

Author's Note: Good lord, how long's it been? Jeez, I'm sorry about that… Couple of things had came up. First was other fic ideas. I guess I'm usually a "one thing at a time" kinda guy…

Secondly and more importantly, a family situation had come up a few months ago and it had dimmed my creative fire a bit. Not just with this story, but with writing fics in general. With this chapter in particular, this is me trying to get my stride back and get creative again, because I would like to finish at least some of my in-progress works... So if you think there's something I did wrong or something I could've done differently that might have been better, please review and let me know. I'm hoping this didn't affect my writing quality.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own any piece of media involved here.

Chapter 4: Total Eclipse Of The 80's

Outside City Hall, which seemed untouched and unfazed by the growing chaos that Plasmius' new "friends" had spread among the town, two figures quietly descended to an unwatched side of the building, covered by Dani's invisibility as she held her gothic human girlfriend. Landing noiselessly on the grass, Sam was now the one carrying Dani as the couple's height difference became apparent, the mini lover looking like a human-shaped backpack on Sam.

"Alright…" Dani said quietly, in case Vlad had guards on patrol. "Now what? Should we phase in and snoop around? Corner Vlad now? Gotta tell ya, Sammy, a part of me wants to thrash him now."

Despite her chagrin at being called that ridiculous pet name again, she merely shook her head and replied. "As great as punching Vlad in the face might be, we don't know the entire situation yet. For all we know, he might have one of those new enemies hiding about to protect him. We should be sneaky. Find out who these guys are, how many of 'em are left, and what their plan is. Then, if possible, we corner Vlad."

Dani placed her head on Sam's shoulder and nuzzled against her lover's head. "That's why you're the brain here, Sam." The Goth groaned quietly in embarrassment at such a cheesy compliment, but didn't mind Dani's childish display of affection. Besides, they were invisible. Who's gonna laugh? Quietly moving to the nearest window, Sam and Dani both peeked inside. Just a typical office room, it seemed. Fortunately for now, Vlad wasn't in sight. But even so, that did little to help them. They could've just phased inside to start looking around, but the duo knew better.

Knowing Vlad, he would've had some sort of anti-ghost barrier or security system in place throughout City Hall, just in case Danny decided to get any ideas about actually invading the corrupt mayor's home (which neither Sam nor Dani couldn't blame their leader for at least thinking about it). Still, they would eventually need to find a way to get inside. For all they knew, Vlad was currently preparing some dangerous weapon or something while Danny was distracted by the undead hitmen.

Window after window they checked. Strangely, there didn't seem to be any signs of officials, workers, or even the janitor. Perhaps they got out while the getting was good. Maybe Vlad kicked them out for secrecy. Nonetheless, the search continued. Finally, at the large window that was to the main office of City Hall, they saw the lanky, grey-ponytailed villain pacing about, a TV in the opposite wall showing the news. Obviously, the news had to be talking about today's ghost attacks. With the way Vlad kept glancing at the TV and then pacing in a similar manner to someone awaiting news of a friend in the ER, the two heroes were sure of Danny's claim that Vlad was the perpetrator. Seems the "good" mayor hadn't counted on actual death and destruction this time.

What did Plasmius think this was? A Saturday morning cartoon?

Maybe he was just waiting for confirmation of Phantom's death and was nervous about an impending beatdown. The sick bastard…

"Alright, we found him. Now what?" Dani asked, glaring at the man within. The fact that he was the man that created her was as irrelevant as the Box Ghost's purpose was to everyone else.

"He seems to be alone. Probably has his security system armed. Typical… We could chance throwing a rock through this window and I charge in alone, but he'd probably go ghost and fight back. You'd still be trapped outside by the ghost shield. So that's out. Valerie would have a better chance at that plan, due to her suit. But she's helping Danny investigate these zombie hitmen. Damn…" Sam contemplated aloud, simmering in annoyance over their limited options.

"Well, at least we know Vlad's by himself. Danny'll be glad that we'll outnumber him after he beats these guys." Dani replied, trying to find a bright side.

"Oh, will he?" a new voice chimed in from behind them.

By the time Sam turned around, the interloper was on them. The last thing the Goth saw was a fist speeding toward her face, a panicked thought racing through her mind wondering how they could've been seen…

The Amityville Scorer, the owner's idea of a punny name for an arcade, stood in the center of a block, surrounded by a 7-11 and a local Chinese restaurant. Normally, gamers of all ages would have begun to file in and play some games, even with today's age of home consoles dominating the market. However, due to a certain situation, the arcade stood eerily quiet in the remains of the cold morning. Almost haunted, if you will. Who was it kidding? Of course it was haunted.

At least, that was what the Red Huntress still assumed, having kept an eagle eye on the relatively popular establishment since she chased that murderous new villain down. Nobody had went in or out since, not even when that giant flying boat suddenly crashed onto the mall some distance away, the isolated thunderstorm dissipating as a result. Was it hiding or merely using her time staking it out to prepare some sinister welcome? She had a sinking feeling which option it was, given the common traits of most supervillains she had come across in her career so far. Couldn't any of Team Phantom meet a criminal, human or ghost, that wanted to just straight-up brawl upon confrontation? (Skulker didn't really count, due to his tendency to try underhanded tactics, despite his 'charge head-on' approach.) No, they all have to hide behind bullshit, according to Valerie's mental research.

The headstrong Huntress was just about to hover down to the arcade's entrance herself when she heard two figures land on the rooftop, a couple of feet behind her. Danny and Ember. Some rustling and the placement of another pair of feet indicated that one of them must've carried Tucker along. Turning, she faced her three friends.

"Hey, Danny, Tuck… Ember…" Valerie greeted, hesitating at the former enemy. Like her techie boyfriend, she was floored when Danny revealed his relationship. Unlike Tucker, however, she still harbors a bit of mistrust toward the undead musician. Although, she seemed to be getting over that as time went on, seeing as Ember had yet to resume her evil ways or harm her former crush in any way. If Danny (Phantom) deserved forgiveness, she could work on accepting Ember as reformed.

"Valerie…" Ember replied just as reserved, having noticed her hesitation. The rocker knew and understood the Huntress' reluctance to trust her, from what Danny had told of her, from meeting her, and from her own actions as a villain. That didn't mean that she liked it when people were adamant about not believing her about things. It especially went double when she had just barely survived three fights against the unknown.

"Both of you look like you got run over by the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle." the Huntress remarked, more as a jab to Ember's appearance than a concerned observation, despite the genuine worry she did have. Cuts and bruises were seen upon them, as well as the fact that both their outfits had some rips and tears scattered here and there. The rips in Ember's outfit allowed Valerie to notice something about the rocker. Raising an eyebrow, she inquired "No bra, Ember?" and followed that with audible 'Tsk' noises as if disappointed.

"Hey, you try being ambushed on a casual day! Ya think scum will let ya change into something more batte-ready?" Ember scolded, her temper already provoked by this whole situation.

Sensing a potential catfight, Danny pressed on to a more urgent matter. "What do we got, Val?"

"Whoever this idiot is, he's still in the arcade. I'd guess he'd have a trap or two already laid out for us. Looked like he was riding around in a miniature UFO and kept throwing bombs at passing cars, already killing a handful of people before stopping here. Man, what the hell was Vlad thinking, hiring these guys? Those others kill people too?"

"Yep. Our second asshole managed to turn the early mall crowd into zombies, from what Tucker told me." Danny answered, remembering Vikke the Viking. "My guess is that Vlad might've gotten desperate. Figured that these chumps might have enough power to finally kill me but didn't think to worry about his constituents. Hopefully, Sam and Dani might be able to deal with him while we clean up here."

Tucker shivered a little. "I dunno why, but I suddenly have a bad feeling about that."

Val softened a little. "It'll be alright, Tucker. Sam and Dani can handle themselves and each other. They probably figured out how to get the drop on him before he can transform."

"Man, I hope so. I mean, what else can go wrong today? A ghost in my PDA?" And it was that very guess that proved why Tucker had earned the nickname of 'Bad Luck Tuck' at one point. The PDA suddenly rang. What was unusual, especially to Tucker, was the choice of ringtone…

"Whip It by Devo?" Ember asked, eyebrow raised.

"That's not even any of my assigned ringtones… Alright, Technus! Get outta my PDA!" Tucker demanded, the miniature but powerful Fenton Lipstick laser weapon pointed at it. No response. It just kept ringing with the song. Odd. Usually, the annoying Mechromancer would be gloating or cowering at that by now.

"Tuck? Uhh… Maybe try answering it. I somehow doubt it's Technus today…" Danny said, remembering his and Ember's own communication breakdown in the mall. With hesitance, Tucker eventually pressed the 'answer' button, immediately putting it on speakerphone. "Uhh….. Hello?"

"Hey there, funky ones! Are you ready to boogie down with me?!" a clearly-autotuned voice answered in a jovial manner. Valerie immediately took over the conversation.

"Is this the asshole that I've been chasing through town?!"

"Ah, I thought someone was following my funk. The babe in the super-freaky red armor, yeah? Are you hoping to end my game?"

"Look, pal. I don't even wanna know how you got this number, but if you're anything like those other assholes, you're gonna lose too." Danny said, annoyed already.

"You met my funky friends, have you? A shame that you won…" the robotic-sounding foe scoffed. "You're not gonna level up on this one, though. Not you, nor any of your three friends."

"How did you…?"

"Life is a game, you see. A super-freaky game! And to play the game, you have to know thy enemy." The screen of the PDA suddenly lit up, showing a silhouetted figure, just his head and shoulders. It could be just the shadows playing tricks, but he looked like he was wearing a thick bathrobe and a very tall top hat of sorts. "Peek-a-boo, I see you. Hehehe…"

"Alright, so you can hack. Big whup." Tucker said, feeling deeply offended that this guy could violate HIS tech in such a way.

"Oh, it's a big deal alright. For I'm Josey James, BITCH! You want to play, you step right on up. I had a totally funk-adelic surprise planned for the red armor chick, since she's been watchin' me for quite a while. But I think it can totally wipe out four squares just as well as one. Game… Start!" With that, the call disconnected, the PDA display reverting back to normal.

"I don't know about any of you, but I've already had enough of meeting new criminals." Ember muttered. "Get out there! Be social! Meet random people! Yaaaay!" she mocked in a sugary-cheerful tone before scowling again. "Gimme another round against Fright Knight any day…"

"We lasted this long, Em. This guy cornered himself in a small town arcade and he might be the last of these jerks." Danny reasoned, trying to psych himself up as he knew that his energy was running low from all the fighting.

"Last I checked, location didn't exactly stop that hippie junkie from almost smoking us. Agh, a stoner pun! Ughhh…" Ember groaned, remembering their earlier agreement to not bring Mariska's gimmick up. After facepalming herself and a declaration of "That's it!", she drew her battle guitar and flew down toward the arcade entrance, clearly fed up with everything.

"Subtlety just went out the window. Screw it, we'll do it live!" Danny declared as he leapt off the rooftop and hovered his way down to follow his girlfriend. Valerie grabbed Tucker and carried him as she trailed behind their friends. Danny landed just as Ember kicked the doors to the arcade open and stomped on inside. "Ember!" he called, his sore muscles aching again as he walked as quickly as he could after her.

Upon entering, the foursome quickly discovered that the inside of the arcade had drastically changed from the Amityville Scorer's usual look. Garish neon lighting, posters of hair bands and vintage pop singers, giant speakers pumping out synth-filled music, amongst other indicators of an overly-1980's arcade.

"UGH! So… tacky…! And this horrid music! Sounds like something you hear on the radio of a crappy thrift store… Gah!" Ember complained, sounding almost in pain from the vibe of the warped arcade. She had her eyes closed and her head in her hands, as if stricken by a migraine. "When I get… my hands on… whoever this guy is…"

"You'll. Do. What. Bitch?!" answered the semi-robotic voice of the ghoul that had identified himself as Josey, his voice coming from the intercom speakers. "You just HAAAAAVE to face the facts! My funk is JUST. THAT. FRESH!" he sang.

"You know what else could be called fresh but is actually just awful? Feces! So I wouldn't be so proud of your 'shit' setup if I were you! Pun intended, by the way!" Danny retorted as he went to check on the addled Ember.

"Is she ok, dude?" Tucker asked, a little wary of the way the pale ghost was quivering. Danny looked her over and gently placed a hand on her forehead, wondering if part of this new villain's gimmick was some sort of fast-acting ecto-sickness. It wouldn't have been the first time he ran into something like that in his superhero career…

"Ugh… Stop babying me, Dipstick… I'll be fine… This monstrosity just revived some bad memories, that's all…" Ember strained to say as she slowly regained her self-control. "Ever faced an idea so repulsive that it becomes your worst nightmare?"

Danny immediately thought of a certain evil version of himself that was currently imprisoned in a dented Fenton Thermos in Clockwork's realm. Nodding, he backed off a little. Ember noticed, wondering what in the world could make her Baby-Pop look as grimly serious as he did for a moment just then. Danny hadn't told her of that particular time-altering adventure yet… But that was a matter for another time.

Especially since other things were about to become more pressing. "Guys? Zombies, dead ahead!" Tucker warned. The other three, not appreciating Tucker's obvious pun one bit, looked around. Indeed, the arcade was already populated with zombies, a fact that was somehow outclassed by the outrageous interior design overhaul. However, there was a reason why the brain-eaters hadn't been immediately drawn toward at least the humans of the team…

They were all playing the arcade games, some muttering about needing to get to the next level or beating a high score…

"Zombies zombie-ing out on… are those zombie games? Talk about meta-Inception!" Valerie said in slight surprise. Her blaster, nonetheless, was aimed in the general direction of the spread-out horde, in case any did sense 'food' nearby.

"I bet we could just sneak past 'em and continue on. I've seen what happens when gamers really get into it. No attention span toward anything else at all." Tucker suggested, partially joking. He had a feeling that he knew what the response would be.

"Nah. Too easy. With our luck, we won't be able to leave this main room until we beat them all." Danny figured, a part of him hoping that these undead are conjured-up minions from some underworld and not unfortunate zombified citizens of Amity Park.

"Phantom, you've clearly been playing too many video games." Valerie scoffed, not unkindly.

"And yet we're in a magically-altered video game arcade. Game logic might just be crazy enough to work here." Tucker pointed out, blasting the nearest dead-head with his Fenton Laser. Tucker's initiative proved to be the cue to start the battle as the other undead took notice of their fallen comrade and started hobbling toward the group, a couple hoarsely yelling about how they 'interrupted their game'.

Ember smashed the head of the first zombie to come at her easily enough with her guitar. "Ooh, angry gamers. How threatening… What's the matter, ya dead virgins? Mad that a girl came to game?" Ember snarked as she jammed her weapon into the gut of the next enemy. "Oh, you ARE mad about a girl gaming? How sexist!"

The brawl commenced, the ghostly duo sticking to up-close combat while Tucker and Valerie picked off targets with their firearms. Arcade games ended up smashed, tables broken, the occasional tacky neon sign or framed hair band poster shattered (thanks to Ember's disgust and her decision to hurl a couple of enemies into them). The only problem came from a couple of zombies that had brought wired classic video game controllers with them, even though they were in an arcade where such items were deemed unnecessary. They were using them as whips to try and deter the efforts of their lively opponents. What they were too brainless to factor in were their reflexes. Ember had her guitar intercept one of the flailing controller cords, which wrapped around it from the momentum of it. The ghostly diva then yanked her guitar back, sending the minion stumbling forward. Ember caught the old worn Nintendo 64 controller ("They can't even get the gaming era right! Ha!"), charged toward the fumbling zombie, and stuck the claw-shaped controller into its face, 'claws' first.

Danny's solution to his problem was similar. He was amused to find that the zombie's 'whip' of choice turned out to be the NES Duck Hunt gun peripheral. For his own sense of wit, he aimed the faux weapon at the enraged ghoul that was lumbering toward him. Pulling the trigger, the gun fired an ecto-beam at the zombie. A headshot which caused the rotting skull to explode, the rest of the body flopping down to the ground. "What do ya know? It works." he joked, having put a little bit of his power into the controller to fire the 'bullet'.

"Way to live up to the 2nd Amendment, Dipstick." was the response Danny got from Ember as she crammed another enemy face-first into the screen of an arcade game, breaking the screen and rendering the zombie trapped and useless. The halfa shrugged and used the Duck Hunt gun to pick off the last remaining zombies. It only took another minute for the foursome to finish off the last few zombies scattered through the spacious main room of the arcade, Tucker and Valerie having dealt the last blows by trying to outdo each other with trick-shooting. Naturally, Valerie was the better shot. To be fair, they both knew Tucker's specialty was technology, not marksmanship. Didn't stop him from trying to show off anyway.

"Alright, Danny. We got 'em all. So, is some door supposed to open now or something?" Tucker asked, looking around the walls of the place. Only a couple of doors aside from the main entrance. Two to the bathrooms, one to what Tuck assumed was the employee area, and one behind the concession stand, probably a kitchen. None of the doors were open.

Valerie headed over to the employee area door, weapon still drawn. "Maybe we should just actually try the doors, Tuck." she suggested as she reached for the knob and turned. Locked.

The synth-fueled 80's music that was blaring though the room's ceiling speakers was suddenly cut off. "Uh uh! No. Way. Little. Lady. If you want to get funky with me, you're all gonna have to Play. The. Game. And if you dare to play… You. Have. To. Pay." Josey declared with his autotuned robo-voice, the music resuming after he hung up. As if on cue, a lone arcade machine that was separated from the others in a corner of the area came to life. The lights dimmed except the couple of light bulbs that were placed nearby the lone machine, in case Josey didn't make the hint obvious enough.

Ember huffed. "Fine, whatever. We'll beat his little challenge. Besides, most of us here can game, so this shouldn't be a problem." she said as the four approached the machine. It was set up to be a four-player game, with four sets of joysticks and respective buttons. The words "Game Start" kept flashing on the screen, as if waiting. The team apparently didn't need to worry about popping in some coins to play.

"Oh, look. A free game. Wasn't it so 'nice' of our 'gracious' host to let us play for free, guys?" Danny asked in a mocking tone, rolling his eyes. He picked a spot and grabbed one of the joysticks, as ready as he'd ever be.

"Oh, yeah. Real smooth guy. Almost makes up for slaughtering innocent people…" quipped Tucker as he picked a spot of his own.

Ember couldn't help but think of Sam, due to the guys' heavy use of sarcasm. Nonetheless, she mirrored their sentiment as she picked the third joystick. When Valerie grabbed the final control pad, the game screen immediately changed, the words fading as the machine produced some corny 8-bit sound effects to indicate the game preparing to start. It was this moment when things got a little strange for the team of heroes. The screen suddenly went to static… which then quickly burst forth from the screen and engulf the four heroes before retracting back into the machine.

Somewhere within the recesses of the twisted arcade, Josey smiled. The pitiful prey had taken the bait and would soon dance to the tune of his funk, all the way to their deaths. With his trap sprung, he excitedly pushed a coin into the arcade game in front of him and got ready to play. After all, if one couldn't beat someone at games, how would that opponent fare when the game becomes their reality?

Ones and zeroes. Binary code, the stuff that pixels and digital dreams are made of. And at this particular point in time, binary was what the four heroes were made of. Their normal appearance had changed to that of humanoid silhouettes made of color. Danny was yellow, Ember was red, Tucker was blue, while Valerie…..

"PINK? Do they think I'm Paulina or something?!" the Huntress growled, not appreciating her color change. She crossed her arms and glared at nobody in particular.

"Well… At least with your suit, you kinda look like the Pink Power Ranger…" Tucker said in an attempt to cheer her up. The cold stare the tech nerd had gotten in response was enough to stop him mid-chuckle. "Ok, ok! Sorry, Val. It's not like we wanted to look like this anyway."

"Yeah, don't make me show you a real 'teenager with attitude', Tuck." the now pink Huntress threatened. As Tucker grew nervous over Val's annoyance, Danny and Ember took a look at their current surroundings, which wasn't much to look at. The four were enclosed in a rectangular room with a black floor and mostly-blue walls, the only difference in the walls being a square white section of wall on one of the longer sides. It went from floor to ceiling.

At that moment, a familiar set of bleeps and bloops was heard. Of the four heroes, Tucker was the one that found it the most recognizable, even if he couldn't quite put his finger on where he had heard it before just yet. But it would be no matter after a couple of minutes. All four would know where they are soon enough.

To their surprise, the white segment of wall gave way, opening up to reveal… another blue wall. Upon closer inspection, they found paths that went to the right and left of them. What appeared to be openings to branching hallways were scattered down both ways. What was odder was the line of floating dots that went down the hallway. Tucker and Danny were both somewhat bothered by the familiarity of it. Where had they seen this before? From a distance, they could hear a constant 'waka-waka-waka' type of sound effect.

"Are we supposed to explore this or something?" Valerie asked, admittedly unsure of what the enemy's objective for them is here. She looked down both hallways, ever alert. Pink or not, it would be unwise for her to drop her guard.

"I think so. Besides, it probably won't do us much good to just stick around here all day." Tucker answered. A thought then occurred to him. "Uhh… Stick together or split up?"

"Oh no you don't! First rule of horror movies: You split up, you die. Remember?" Ember objected, her arms crossed. Not that she needed to worry about herself dying, of course. But still, her concern persisted.

"Horror movies? But we're obviously trapped in a video game!" Tucker rebutted, also crossing his arms.

"We've been fighting all damn morning against superpowered zombie assassins trying to butcher the hell outta Amity and turn its citizens to zombie minions. Does that sound like a romantic-comedy to you?!" the rock diva shot back.

"….Alright, fine. Fair point. We stick together." Tucker conceded, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

Being too fed up and worn from the overall conflict to argue about whether to go right or left, the group just started wandering down the left hallway, the constant 'waka-waka' sound moving around them. Something was making that noise, something quick…. They turned left down one hallway, turned right through a doorway, kept going straight, turned right again after passing a couple of passageways. It dawned on the four teens what their problem was.

They were trapped in a maze.

Then it hit Tucker. Blue maze… Lined with floating dots…. 'Waka-waka-waka-waka' noises…. The only thing missing was—

His thoughts were interrupted when all four heroes suddenly changed color to a dark blue. Immediately, the constant noise sounded closer. "Guys, I know what we're in! It's—"

His declaration was cut off when a giant yellow orb with eyes and, more dangerously, a giant mouth that ate the floating lines as it traveled turned a corner, heading toward them. "PAC-MAN! AND HE JUST ATE A POWER PELLET! RUN!" Tucker yelled, scrambling away immediately. Danny grabbed a stubborn Ember, who wanted to fight, and ran after his techie friend, slightly hobbled by a resisting girlfriend. Valerie, having never played many games to begin with, couldn't see why she couldn't just shoot the yellow blob down. Aiming her weapon and pulling the trigger, she was rewarded with an empty click. Click, click, click.

"VAL! C'mon! When Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet, we're completely vulnerable for a period of time! He'll eat us!" Danny shouted from around a corner when he noticed that the Huntress didn't follow. "We're stuck playing by the rules!"

Cursing her luck (her sentiments echoed by Ember from somewhere up ahead), Valerie ran for her life. It was the video game equivalent of Indiana Jones running from his arch-nemesis, the Rolling Giant Boulder. However, unlike the boulder of movie fame, when Valerie turned the corner, so did Pac-Man, inches behind her. The other three, who had waited for her, goggled and resumed running.

"DAMMIT, being defenseless sucks ass! How long does this shit go for?!" Ember demanded, a little grumpy at her boyfriend's insistence of carrying her. She could run too, after all. Even if she'd rather blast the big-mouthed yellow avatar… A small part of her, which she would never admit to anyone, was a little grateful that he placed such a high priority on keeping her safe, despite her notable advantage of being already dead. Wasn't he still sore from the previous fights?

An already familiar voice was then heard. "You. Four. Are. Quite. Fast. I. Got. To. Say. In fact, it inspires me to put on some music as I play. Get. Funky. People!" As his slightly mechanical voice faded, a song that would be extremely familiar to anybody familiar with 1980's culture began to play, with its well-known refrain…

'_And I ruunnn… I run so far awaaaay…. I just ruuunn! I run all night and daaay! Couldn't get away!'_

Danny was not only bothered by the fact that, once again, a villain had chosen to make fun of their plight. He was also reminded of those times his parents would ditch their hazmat suits for tacky old-school outfits for a nostalgia night. One would think such a memory wouldn't come to mind when he's about to be eaten alive, but there it was.

"Uh, Danny? Shouldn't the effect of the Power Pellet be wearing off by now?!" Tucker asked, his voice rising in fright as the giant Pac-Man seemed to get ever so closer to them as they ran and tried to lose him around corners. Tucker did raise a point. In a normal game of Pac-Man, the ghost-weakening effects of the Pellet only lasted a few seconds.

"Bet'cha $10 this asshole modded this game… Alright, guys, split up! At least that way, Pac'll only chase one of us!" Danny declared, the team coming up on an intersection of various paths. Danny and Ember went right, Tucker just kept going straight, while Valerie took off on one of the left paths. Unfortunately, the nickname of 'Bad Luck Tuck' seemed to strike the poor techie once again as Pac-Man decided not to turn and kept chasing Tucker.

"AW, MAN!" was heard throughout the maze, causing Danny and Valerie both to slow their pace as they figured out where their enemy went. "What now, Dipstick?" Ember asked, exasperated. Danny didn't know. The group would have a chance once the Power Pellet effect wore off, but for all he knew, this Josey could have made it so the effect is always on forever until he wins…

Things only got worse as a definitely unmanly shriek followed by a slight yell of pain echoed through the maze despite the blaring Flock Of Seagulls music. "Dammit! It got Tuck…" the halfa muttered, stopping. Was he… dead? He didn't want to even consider it. Even so, he knew he should keep moving. As morbid confusion broiled within Danny's brain, he ran on. He didn't pay too much attention to where he was going, other than listening out for the giveaway 'waka-waka' sound of Pac-Man's movements.

If one of his best friends was indeed dead, his 'deletion' won't be the only one… Plasmius had much to answer for.

Valerie's hollering from a distance shook him out of his angry train of thought. He figured Pac-Man must have chosen to chase after her next. Ember, meanwhile, looked lost in thought. "Hmm… If this jackass can change the game's rules, why can't we? I dunno much about computers, but uhhh…. Maybe we can mess with the game environment or do something to make the game impossible to complete?" she pondered to Danny.

The halfa blinked. Now there was an idea. "Great idea, Em! But how?" Taking a glance around, Danny noticed the floating dots that lined the center of the pathways, floating there, waiting. Curious, he set Ember down and reached out… He palmed it like he was holding a basketball. He could touch it! Grasping it with both hands, he pulled it to him, expecting some resistance. Imagine his surprise when it simply came with him, his sudden yank making him stumble backward from overdoing it.

"Hah! I got it! Now… what to do with this? Hmm… I know! The only place Pac-Man can't go inside! Our starting point! We get this inside there, this asshole will have to either play forever or quit the game. Can't beat the level until he eats all the dots!" Danny strategized aloud. A long shot, especially if Josey chose to actually play forever, him being immortally undead after all… But it was better than having no plan at all.

"_And I raaann, I ran so far awaaay…! I just raaan! I ran all night and daaaay!'_

"Just one problem, Dipstick…. Do ya even know the way back to the starting point?" Ember asked. And just like that, her boyfriend's enthusiasm drained away from his face. In all the hectic running about, he didn't exactly keep track of where exactly in the maze he was. A first-person view of a game that was normally viewed from overhead was truly a different experience…

He gulped. "Uh… Guess we have no choice but to keep moving and hope that bottomless stomach doesn't find us." he muttered before starting to jog back where they had come from. Ember quickly followed.

A right, a couple of lefts, wandering straight ahead, another left, a right… Danny and Ember soon became worried. Danny, being the gamer of the two, tried to use his memories of the few times he did play the retro game to see if he can recognize the maze layout as they kept moving. He thought he knew some parts as they ran, but to their knowledge, that had yet to lead them to their home base. Meanwhile, at the same time, the sounds of Valerie and Pac-Man's chase seemed to be moving closer to where they were.

"And I thought being hunted by Skulker was bad…" Ember quipped, running with her guitar drawn as a last resort. The game's rules may say that they're completely powerless against Pac-Man, but she wasn't going to go down without at least trying to smash her axe upside its giant yellow head.

"Isn't that my line?" Danny asked, ironically thinking what she had said right before she said it. They came across yet another intersection and the couple silently decided to turn left, the conversation uninterrupted by this.

"At least he only wanted to kill you. Ugh… What did I ever see in that jerk?" she said, grumbling the last part mainly to herself.

"Either way, he wanted to stick spears in both of us, even though I guarantee that the spear he wanted to use on me is probably a lot bigger than the one he wanted to use on you." If this were a less dangerous scenario, Danny would have dared to stop everything and look at her to see her reaction. But he kept running. Nonetheless, Ember could practically feel the smug smirk forming on her boyfriend's face over his double-entendre.

As much as they both should focus on the mission at hand, Ember couldn't help bursting out laughing for a couple of moments. "Spear? HA! More like a needle!" she guffawed. Danny chuckled too as they turned right.

"That small? That's sad, considering that his whole body's a mechanical suit. He couldn't even build a proper…uh…apparatus?"

"Y'ALL DO REALIZE I CAN HEAR YOU TWO LAUGHING OVER ALL THIS NOISE, RIGHT? STILL BEING CHASED HERE!" Valerie shouted, seemingly from only a few walls over. Ember and Danny blushed a little. Valerie was right. Not the place to talk trash about the Ghost Zone's rogues' gallery… With their faces looking a little strange from blushing with their new dark-blue shade, the duo kept moving with the hope that the center of the maze was relatively nearby.

After a couple more turns, Danny and Ember spotted a familiar white-shaded doorway amongst all the blue walls. But bad luck seemed to strike at that moment as, down their desired hallway and past the doorway, Valerie ran around the corner toward them, Pac-Man in hot pursuit.

"SHIT! What do we do?!" demanded Ember, as panic started to unravel. Danny's response was cut off by Josey, who deigned to chuckle at their misfortune.

"Almost. Got. You. Now. Sistah! You must be getting tired. I knew you Just. Weren't. Fresh! And look, the rest of your crew right in my path. FUNKY!"

Valerie ran past the doorway, the yellow big-mouth just inches behind. But something suddenly stopped the seemingly invincible Pac-Man in its tracks. A moment later, it imploded on itself, the gang hearing the famous death bleeps of the gaming icon. The trio's confusion suddenly turned to joy as Tucker stood where Pac-Man was, his body no longer shaded a different color. "Miss me, guys? Man, am I glad this joker forgot about me!"

"Tucker?! But how? We heard you…" Ember trailed off. Danny chuckled at Ember's confusion, slinging an arm around her.

"In Pac-Man, if a weakened ghost gets eaten, he gets sent back to the ghosts' home base, but no longer vulnerable to the effect of the Power Pellet. Guess this Josey forgot to hack that outta the game!" Danny explained, relieved that Tucker hadn't actually died. In the back of his mind, he did realize that the fact that this happened seemed a little like Deus Ex Machina. But on the other hand, the foursome were currently dealing with video game logic. Sometimes, it could work for them as well.

"It still hurt like hell, though… Damn!" Tucker griped, feeling as though he actually had bite wounds scattered along his body. "Welcome to the front lines, Tuck." Valerie replied, picking on how Sam and Tucker normally provided backup support, being humans with only whatever Fenton weapons they could get.

"C'mon, Val… I've been fighting zombies all morning. Last thing I wanted was to be chomped on by Pac-Man." To emphasize this, he took his red beret off and straightened it out, as if it got chewed up along with him.

Suddenly, the doorway into their starting point was cut off by what looked like television static. An EXIT sign appeared over the apparent portal. "You. Think. You're. The. Best. Now. But I'm Not. Done. Yet!" Josey said, chuckling as his voice and the music faded away. Choosing to not dignify the villain with a response, the foursome entered the static portal… As soon as the last hero (Ember) entered, the Pac-Man maze faded into the binary ether of zeroes and ones, no longer useful to any of the parties involved.

Danny and his friends found themselves on the roof of the Amityville Scorer, once their vision wasn't impeded by TV static. Somebody would have said something about the change of scenery, if it wasn't for the attention-grabbing thumping of music bass from a corner of the roof, behind them. A glance in that direction revealed a strange sight indeed. Surrounded by a group of break-dancing fools (zombified, of course) was a zombie hauling around an old-school boombox that was blaring bass-heavy dance music.

"Let's… break it… down!" the stereo-carrying ghoul gurgled as loudly as it could. Immediately, the small army of undead break-dancers started to groove their way toward the heroes.

"Really? This guy thinks a dance party is going to whup US?!" Ember asked, taken aback by the nerve. "Baby, I was born to rule the floor as well as the stage!" The guitar-slinging ghost took charge and ran at one of the mindless pawns of death. But when she swung her axe at the minion, she was surprised to see her weapon merely bounce off the zombie's flesh. She tried again, harder. All she ended up doing was cause the zombie to stumble back a little, but it remained unharmed while its dance remained mostly undisturbed.

"The hell?!" she asked. A green energy beam hit another minion, the attack not fazing it in the least. Danny, having fired an ecto-beam, grew worried.

"You. Feel. The. Power. Of. The FUNK! Yet? Can you keep up?" Josey taunted from… somewhere. The break-dancers started to fan out, planning to flank the team.

"DJ… got some… RAD SKILLS!" growled the radio zombie, bringing up the rear. Valerie, still frustrated after almost being eaten by Pac-Man, aimed her blaster and fired at the wannabe DJ. The others figured it might have been useless, even though they shared her sentiment. But their dismay turned to hope as Valerie's blasts hit the zombie….and actually inflicted wounds on it. Seeing this, Danny and Tucker recognized what they were dealing with, again from video games.

"Oh, gotta love the logic here. The one with the radio acted as a shield buffer, covering his allies with protective barriers, but its downside is that it can't protect itself." Tucker explained not unlike a scholar. Or, more likely, a YouTube personality…

Danny fired another ecto-beam, this time at the DJ zombie. His aim was perfect. But it wasn't the head he was aiming for. The music died abruptly as the big boombox suddenly had a gaping charred hole in it. "One would think that Josey just doesn't see that game logic always leaves a solution for us, the players, to figure out…" the halfa added, also sounding like he and Tucker were making a YouTube video. Perhaps one of the numerous 'Let's Play' videos…

"Or maybe he's just stringing us along, trying to tire us out so he can beat us himself? This hasn't exactly been a day of standing around and fidgeting with joysticks…" Valerie put in, the voice of reason among the jocularity. Ember smirked to herself, slightly blushing as her rebellious mind remembered that she had been 'fidgeting with a joystick' the previous evening. But the others didn't need to know that, even if the double-pun was funny to her. To hide her personal amusement, she tried attacking a zombie again. Sure enough, the ghoul lost an arm to her axe. No boombox, no shield. Strange logic, but she'll take what she can at this point.

"Pfft… As if his 'friends' hadn't worn us out already…" Danny grumbled as he flew forward and socked a zombie in its face with a punch before tripping a charging zombie with his feet. The two weapons-based heroes started shooting at zombies that Ember and Danny weren't currently fighting. It didn't take the group long to dispatch the dancing brain-eaters, the last one having its head sliced clean off by Ember. The head flew up a little ways and then fell back to the ground. On its way down, Ember swung her guitar like a baseball bat, the flat backside of it hitting the head and sending it flying into the distance.

Danny raised an eyebrow at this, a thought occurring to him. "Uh, Em? What if that head lands somewhere we probably wouldn't want it to?"

"The entire city's on alert by now, Dipstick. Everyone's probably hiding or evacuating. Just what could one flying head do?"

"Uhhh…"

Meanwhile, on the other side of town…

Paulina was kinda excited. Sure, a part of her was sad that the latest batch of ghostly criminals had actually taken lives this time. She wasn't that cruel. What she was excited about was the chance to see her crush, the Ghost Boy, in action. A part of her thought that if she were put in a precarious (but not TOO precarious) situation, he'd have to rescue her. And if he rescued her, it could mean she could talk to him, if only for a little bit. Maybe he'd have to grab her and move her out of the way of something. Even better!

But where exactly was he? The news said something about a commotion near the old arcade where she knew some of the school's resident losers (in the A-List's eyes) tend to congregate when they weren't at the Nasty Burger, but should she go all the way over there? It might be too late by the time she got there…

She vowed to herself that she would get the affections of her darling Ghost Boy, one way or the other. No matter what happens!

And right then and there, a decapitated head crashed on her own head, knocking her down and into a daze, the zombie head landed a short distance away and rolled a little. Just like that.

Back with Team Phantom…

"Uhhh… Just a feeling I have…" Danny said with a shrug. Ember gave the matter no more thought, brushing off Danny's answer.

"So where do we go from here? Do we climb down and go back in?" Tucker asked, not really seeing anything altered about their outdoor surroundings, unlike the arcade's interior.

"Maybe. All I know is that we gotta keep pushing forward." the halfa replied, already hovering and ready to float down to the front door. He was suddenly interrupted again by the chuckling of Josey.

"Why. Replay. A. Level. You. Already. Beat? How about a real challenge, funky Phantom?" the ghoul taunted as another arcade machine seemingly appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of the roof. "BUT! Breaking news, boppers! I. Have. Just. Gotten. An. Early. Reward. For. My. Sweet. Style! Hmm… What. Do. We. Have. Here? Two girls! One. Is. A. Little. Young. But… Heh… She'll do fine. Quite a cute mouth on her. And this one… Yes… I. Do. Like. Her. Look. It's like she could be Elvira if she tried. And had a bigger chest… Hehehe… Word through the grapevine is that you know these two honeys very well, heroes…" Josey's chuckling grew sinister as his hints finally hit home.

"DANI!? SAM?!" Danny exclaimed.

"They were grooving a little too close to our benefactor's home base, heroes. You. Can't. Break. Up. A. Good. Party. Like. That! So, we thought I could show them… how to groove… I'm. Gonna. Have. Fun. With. This. However, I'm not that unfair. Let's break it down with a contest! You play this next game. If you prove yourselves to be totally radical, I'll place these babes on the table and we can compete head to head."

He then burst into song, albeit a slight alteration of one… _"You gotta dance if you want to or you can leave your friends behind. 'Cause your friends don't dance and if YOU don't dance, well, you're no friend of theirs…"_ The threat lingered in the air as he said nothing more.

"He butchered the Safety Dance…?" droned Ember in a completely unimpressed tone. "What's next? The Electric Slide or something?" Her quip went completely unanswered by her boyfriend as Danny already stormed up to the arcade machine and had a death grip on the joystick. He instantly faded into the machine in a wave of static and binary code.

"Uh oh… Now he's pissed." Tucker said, resigning himself to the situation at hand. Valerie and Ember glanced at him. He elaborated a little. "Let's just say some villains will learn the hard way not to mess with Danny's friends..." he trailed off, remembering a certain incident involving death, dark sides, and time travel.

Only a couple of minutes later, the arcade machine sputtered and sparked before finally exploding, a heavily-panting halfa emerging from the debris and smoke. Was it Ember's imagination or were Danny's eyes… red? Nah… It must be her mind playing tricks. They're as green as always. He was just being really intense at the moment.

"Dare I ask what game he sent you into…?" Valerie cautiously inquired. Danny's breathing calmed slightly, knowing he was among his friends again. Didn't make him less angry at Josey, though.

"Freakin' Donkey Kong. Oh, I totally won alright. Especially when I took that hammer and just smashed and smashed through every barrel… As for that King Kong wannabe, well… I don't think environmentalists would approve of how I dealt with him." It was then that the others noticed a new accessory hanging off of Danny's neck: the big red tie usually associated with Donkey Kong… Even Ember felt that she really didn't need to know what he had done to the large iconic ape.

"A. Minor. Setback. I. Assure. You. Also, quite… disturbing. I expected sorrow, not rage… Nonetheless, you brought the funk. So I'll bring your little superfreaks and we'll all get freaky on the dance floor. Bust a move, suckas…" Josey declared before a vertical rectangle of TV static appeared in front of the heroes, with nothing to hold it up but the bent reality that Josey created it from. A doorway.

"Play it your way, dumbass. I'm getting my friends back." Danny answered, more to himself than toward Josey or the others. With that, he put one foot in front of the other and entered the portal, yanking the red tie off and discarding it. Steeling themselves for what this 80's-gaming based villain might have next, the rest followed.

More 80's music assaulted their ears as the group found themselves in a corner of a small dance room, full of neon lighting, glaring neon-colored painted/patterned walls, and multicolored lighting on the floor and ceiling. Populating most of the room were, of course, zombies. Fortunately for them, the minions all seemed to be preoccupied with dancing in their stiff, clumsy manner. Unfortunately, there were no signs of Dani, Sam, or anybody that looked to be in charge of this disaster.

"Oh, what? Too chicken to show yourself, 'Blandmaster Ass'?!" Danny called out to the room. None of the zombies paid him any mind. But the speakers cut out before a familiar voice came from them.

"I. Said. Bust. A. Move. Sucka! Did you think I'd be in the lower floor of my club?! Trust. Me. We're. Here. Get FUNKY with the flow!" The music resumed itself, Josey leaving the heroes to the room in front of them.

In the center of the room was a raised circular platform for dancing. But what really irked them was what was placed in the center of the platform… "Is that… a stripper pole?!" Valerie pointed out. It was bad enough that Josey had implied that he would do certain things to his hostages, but this seemed to confirm that the new villain was indeed a chauvinistic pig. Sure enough, a few of the female zombies mingling in the crowd appeared to have been strippers, judging from the filthy, torn scraps of what used to be clothing…

"Guess we'll have to cut a rug through here… I see some sort of exit on the other side, past the crowd." Danny observed and began walking forward, readying his sore body for more battle. Ember cut him off, grabbing him by his shoulders.

"Hold it, Dipstick… I think this jerk's trying to tire us all out before we even get to him. Obviously, we've been through a lot so far and I bet he knows it. Besides… I got an idea for this. They want a dance? I'll give 'em a dance." she said, stepping in front of him, her hands still on him. She could feel how tense he was, if the look on his face wasn't obvious enough. She knew he was distressed about his friends. But the last thing she wanted him to do was throw himself at everything and end up too hurt and exhausted to fight Josey.

"Ember, I can—"

"NO. Really, I got this. Just stand there and watch the fireworks." she insisted before strutting away, heading toward the circular platform in the center of the room. On her way, she used her guitar to slash at nearby zombies, mostly to try and get the crowd's attention. Hopping up on the platform, she got herself ready to play a tune.

"Does she think her hypno-music is going to affect zombies? I thought it only made people mindless like zombies." Tucker wondered aloud, confused by Ember's strategy. The ghostly diva strummed a few loud chords, but no visible bursts of her signature power came forth. The noise of the guitar bled over the blaring synths of tacky 80's mall music, managing to get the attention of the surrounding zombies. Amazingly, even though Ember was a ghost with no nutritional value to mindless zombies, the dancing ghouls growled louder and started lurching toward the platform, the closest ones starting to climb.

"Is it just me or are they just mad that she's interrupting their dancing?" Valerie asked, a little dumbfounded by the scenario playing out before her. The mob, mindless as they are, pressed onward with no care or concern about the fact that the ones in front were pressed between each other and the platform wall. They climbed nonetheless as Ember drove them on.

"That's it, you morons! Get up here! Last one up's a total square! Ugh… Who the hell calls someone a square anymore?" Ember said, her taunts trailing off into distaste. She backed up until she reached the stripper pole in the very center of the platform, still strumming her jarring chords of rock. She takes a look around, to be certain that she won't be grabbed from behind. She'll need a little space to begin her plan. Now was as good a time as any…

Temporarily holstering her axe on her back, she turned and grabbed the pole with one hand and started turning herself around the pole, using her feet to help get around and get momentum. "C'mon, try to break the No Touching rule! I dare ya!" she taunted again as she revolved faster. Within moments, she gained enough momentum to actually swing around the pole with her feet off the ground. From there, she used her ghostly ability to fly to her advantage to help her swing around faster, the first wave of zombies successfully on the platform and approaching her. Ember changed her position mid-swing so that her legs were curved around the pole to hold her up and keep her swinging. With her hands free, she pulled her guitar free again and stuck it outward.

The effect was immediate once the first few zombies got within range of the guitar. The guitar cut into the zombies as if Ember became an undead stripper-shaped buzzsaw on a pole. As expected, the minions of evil didn't care. They pressed forward, mindlessly becoming chopped in half by the high-speed, mystically sharp guitar. And while her spinning body was sprayed with spilt blood and guts (yet again today), she couldn't help but sing…

"_You spin me right 'round, baby!_

_Right 'round like a record, baby,_

_Right 'round, 'round, 'round!_

_You spin me right 'round, baby!_

_Right 'round like a record, baby,_

_Right 'round, 'round, 'round!"_

The trio of heroes watched the surreal massacre in shock. Valerie was the first to recover her ability to speak. "Danny…? As a former girlfriend, I gotta say… you got a mad one on your hands." she said, putting a hand on the halfa's shoulder as if showing sympathy. What did a nice boy like Danny see in a wild woman with crazy ideas of combat like Ember? Clearly, the ghost was having fun with her bizarre idea of dealing with enemies… Still, a part of her did consider the fact that, with the fight-filled day that the halfa and the diva seemed to be having so far, it seemed quite acceptable at this point to do whatever can solve the problem. Besides, maybe this was Ember's way of venting frustration. Valerie noted that she'd better not intentionally piss Ember off….

"Dude, this is definitely something out of grindhouse movies… I'm never gonna think the same way about that song ever again." Tucker critiqued, not able to look away. Danny couldn't figure out whether he meant that in disgust or in praise. After all, he indulged in plenty of gory movies, along with Danny and Sam. But seeing something like this in person was obviously different...

"Danny?" Valerie prodded, noticing the halfa's lack of verbal response from either friend's comments.

"I definitely wouldn't have thought of that idea… But that is…" he trailed off.

"TOTALLY AWESOME!" both Danny and Tucker finished the halfa's thought in unison, fists raised. Yep, the inner horror movie junkie in them surfaced again. Valerie was aghast, muttering to herself about the immaturity of guys. Soon enough, the last clueless ghoul was mowed down by the spinning guitarist. No longer feeling the slight resistance of zombie flesh on her guitar, Ember slowed herself down until she came to a complete stop, her legs holding herself on the pole so that she was stylishly hanging off the pole upside down. It would have been sexy if she wasn't completely red with blood and pieces of guts…

"I need a shower…" Ember simply said before reaching her hands down to the ground and released her legs' hold on the pole, pitching herself forward until she was doing a handstand. She then pushed herself up off the floor, using her flight to correct her balance before landing on her feet. "Scratch that. I need a really long bath. And that's weird, considering I'm dead." she added, going intangible so that most of the loose blood and guts merely dropped to the floor of the raised platform. Her skin and torn clothes were still stained with blood, giving her the appearance of wearing dark red clothes and having clashing skin tones of red and her usual pale-blue.

"Can zombie blood infect ghosts with diseases? Wow, that's a new question…" Tucker observed, suddenly picturing the question posed to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, being ever the scientific types about anything ghostly. There was just something kinda odd about the idea of his best friend's parents arriving on the scene of one of these zombie slaughters, perhaps the mall, and taking samples of undead blood and guts for examination.

"Oh, now you ask this, Tucker? Yeah, that's what I need right now, the risk of coming down with some undead super-virus." scolded Ember, casually trying to shake off more blood in a fruitless endeavor. Apparently, intangibility can only do so much… "Note to self: This is the last time I do anything remotely resembling a GWAR concert…"

"So you can hang, boppers! And. Quite. Stylish. Too. You just got access to the next floor of my club. Try to keep up!" Josey announced, seemingly unfazed by the fact that his enemies got through another of his obstacles. It was no matter to him. Their attempts to reach him were merely amusing, at first. When his fellow Dark Purveyor stopped by to deliver two sweet babes to him, Josey then viewed the opposition as a prelude to real entertainment. How long had it been since he last 'entertained' a mortal woman? He had been stuck with his two female zombie 'assistants', which was funky enough. But even the best funk tunes could be overplayed after so much repetition…

With a few more key strokes of his huge pink keytar (complete with mic attachment and built with a tacky star-shaped body), he turned toward his two new conquests, who were unconscious and trapped in the dancing embrace of his two favored zombie strippers. Between the zombies' unnatural movements and the humans' obvious lack of awareness at the moment, all four looked like dancing puppets with tangled strings. The fun would truly get funky once the new babes woke up to see the faces of his darling strippers. Screams of terror did add a special flair to his synth beats…

Meanwhile, Team Phantom had made their way across the room to the other side, approaching an oddly-dark corridor that looked like it could lead somewhere. They hoped it led straight to this Josey character so they can finish this right off. As they entered the corridor, overhead lights came on, one at a time. They revealed the corridor itself, immediately dashing their hopes for a straight-up confrontation with this villain as the corridor was a dead end with yet another arcade machine prominently placed against the wall.

"I never thought I'd ever say this, but I'm really not in the mood for playing any more video games today…" Tucker groused. "Knowing my luck, it'll be Pitfall and I'll be eaten by those damn crocodiles!"

"If only Sam were here to hear that. I bet she'd say that 'you are what you eat', meat boy." Valerie replied. Ember let out a single 'Ha' while Tucker looked unimpressed and Danny once again grew worried upon being reminded of the hostage situation.

"Alright… We should probably just start the game and get through it. We're kinda trapped in this room anyway. There's no doors or windows in here at all. Obviously, Josey's controlling our path here… Jeez, it's like the mall all over again. Sigh… We've gotten this far. Hell, maybe the next game'll be something fun." Danny said, his leadership role taking point. The others could tell that Ember dealing with the zombie horde definitely allowed Danny to have a little break and calm down.

The halfa turned to the arcade machine and approached it, placing a hand on one of the joysticks. Silently (save for Tucker grumbling more about the likelihood of being eaten again), the others followed suit. Like before, the wave of static brought them into the game before they even realized what happened…

The 'world' they wound up in definitely seemed futuristic, a drastic change to the 80's vibe they had endured since entering the arcade. It looked like they were in some sort of robotic industrial warehouse, with all sorts of metallic crates, catwalks, power equipment, and unlike warehouses of the real world, numerous futuristic computer terminals and a horde of malfunctioning robots wandering around, shooting at anything. "Yeah, Technus would definitely call this home, that's for sure…" Danny thought aloud.

"Why am I on the floor?" Tucker asked, confused. His point of view seemed to be quite lower than usual as he surveyed the realm before them. Odd, he wasn't sitting or laying down….

The others turned to him… and jumped in surprise. And then proceeded to freak out at each other's appearance.

"What are we?! Cyborgs?! I don't even have one sci-fi related song in my set list!" Ember exclaimed, just as her right hand fell off. "Oh great… We're not cyborgs. We're full-on robots! Or androids! Whatever!" she grumbled as she bent over and picked up her misplaced hand.

"I don't feel anything wrong here." Valerie said, going to give herself a knock on the chest to show that, despite her armor, she's still human. The loud metallic clang proved otherwise… "Uhh… Ok, maybe I'm a robot too. Certainly doesn't feel like I am!"

"That's all good, but… why's Tucker a robot dog?" Danny asked. Upon hearing that, Tucker grew agitated.

"A dog? They turned me into a DOG? Of all the indignity… NOT COOL! I can't even check my PDA anymore!" the techie complained, looking at his front robo-paws. Apparently, his color scheme was red and white, mostly red.

"Well, you are a horndog, so it definitely fits." Ember retorted while she made sure her fallen hand would stay on her arm this time, her signature mischievous smirk appearing, masking her inner turmoil about the situation.

"Dammit…"

Danny then clanged a fist to an open palm, as if realizing something. "I got it! We're playing Mega Man!"

"Mega Man?" Ember asked, the series mostly unfamiliar to her.

"Yeah. My new body's a dead giveaway. No long-time gamer can mistake this suit of armor for someone else!" Indeed, Danny was completely clad in the signature blue chassis of the titular video game character. He even had the helmet on, the only part of his body showing being his face. Testing out the body, he lifted his right hand and, with a couple of flicks and flexes, managed to make his right hand change into the business end of Mega Man's best known weapon, the Mega Buster arm cannon. "Whaddya know? I'm 'armed' and dangerous!"

"Well, that explains some things." Tucker replied, still moping about his new form. "Guess that makes me Rush the Dog. Hmmm… Ember's obviously Roll."

"My name is ROLL? What kinda name is that?!" Ember said, not thrilled at all. "And what's with this getup?" Her hair, while still fiery and in a ponytail, was now blonde. She was dressed in a simple red casual dress and what looked like red metal boots, none of her usual attire to be seen whatsoever.

"Uhh, Danny? If she doesn't like the name of her character, I can't wait to see how she reacts to her new fighting skills…" Tucker sarcastically pointed out, recalling a fact about Roll that he knew would bug Ember to no end. He wasn't sure if it wouldn't end well for the game's enemies, Josey, or themselves… All he could do was wait for the inevitable when the action started.

"What? What won't I like? ….Tucker? …..Dammit, tell me! What's wrong with this?" Ember asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Tucker, feeling nervous, just stayed silent. "Anybody want to tell me something here?" Her question, for the time being, was passed over.

"And then we have Proto Man… although, it's definitely Proto Woman now. Huh… Very fitting." Danny said as he critiqued the new appearance of the Red Huntress. Her game avatar, however, didn't seem to be as red as her usual armor. Her changed helmet, her forearms, and forelegs retained her chosen color. The rest of the body looked like a grey uniform with a red belt and a yellow scarf around her neck. Her helmet revealed only her nose, mouth, and jaw. Her original visor was changed to look like pointed shades attached to the helmet, the shades bordered by a white decal that sort of looked like three points. Slung on her back was a long, thin shield that was almost as tall as she was, perhaps the changed version of her hoverboard.

"Fitting? How is me being like this fitting?" Valerie asked, unsure of what to think of the comment.

"In the game, Mega Man and Proto Man are pretty much arch-rivals. Kinda like how we were. Ya know… before we worked things out. Also, the knack for wearing red." Danny briefly explained, happening to notice that a few of the rampant enemies had noticed them and were lumbering toward them.

"Will somebody tell me what's so bad about this Roll character!?" Ember demanded. Danny could understand how she must be feeling, having had plenty of strange, stressful situations hurled upon him throughout his career. Welcome to the superhero life, Ember.

"You're about to see, because here comes the welcoming committee!" Danny answered as he aimed his new Mega Buster cannon at one of the incoming robots and fired. His shot was off, but that didn't worry Danny too much. Shouldn't be too difficult to get acquainted with aiming his robotic, heavy arm as he went. Firing again, he managed to hit an enemy's leg, sending it tumbling to the ground.

Ember concentrated on trying to activate whatever weapon system this particular robo-body had. Maybe she also had an arm cannon. Or perhaps some other awesome weapon she could have fun with. It must be something cool! What's so wrong about the way this Roll character fights? Her left hand disappeared into itself. 'Sweet! I get a cannon too!' Ember thought, just before something popped up from the hole her hand left behind. Something she wasn't expecting… A vacuum head, ready to suck.

"What…? This can't be right. Gimme a weapon!" Ember said, thinking that maybe verbally ordering her body would work. At the very moment, Tucker had managed to bite the leg of an enemy while Valerie was getting used to her own arm cannon a short distance away, the group pressing forward against the small horde of robo-minions. Something on her person clicked, Ember feeling something sticking out from her right hip. Grabbing the object, she pulled it out to reveal what looked like a small baton. Fidgeting with it, the 'baton' suddenly extended. She thought she had gotten lucky with getting a bo staff until she saw what was on one end of it… The object was a broom.

At the same time, her vacuum hand disappeared and another object took its place. A frying pan? "Does this character not even have one actual weapon to fight with?!" Ember asked, annoyed. It wouldn't be the first time today she had to make do with random objects, of course. Still, something about this began to grind her gears. She ran after the others, who were slowly making progress through the sci-fi warehouse. "Dipstick! What's with my character?" she asked.

Danny, having just taken out his fifth enemy robot, took a glance at her, noticing the problem right away. He grew sheepish. "Uh… In the story, before the game's entire conflict began, Roll was designed to be… uh… a robotic maid…"

"….What…?"

"Uh… Are you ok?" Danny asked. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt a little warmer. A part of him, most likely his ghostly half sensing his surroundings, felt that it would be a great idea to take a few steps back…

"Am I ok…? Our breakfast was interrupted non-stop by a group of uber-powerful douchenozzles on that old butt-nugget your town calls a mayor's payroll. We got our asses put through the wringer all morning long. I don't think I want to go to the mall for a long while because of that hippie freak! We all know that you and I are beginning to run low on power! They have the advantage! Goth Chick and Baby-Dip are hostages! AND NOW THAT FUNKER DARES TO CRAM ME INTO SOME SEXIST STEREOTYPE! DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M OKAY!?" Despite her different form, her now-blonde fire hair grew in size to match her rage, towering over Danny like an erupting volcano as she screamed.

"No?" Danny meekly answered, eyes wide in awe and horror at the spectacle that is a woman scorned. It was at that time when another batch of robotic enemies plodded their way toward them. It was quite unfortunate…for them.

Ember roared, snapping the bristled end off the broom and ran full-speed toward the opposition. "I AM NOT SOME DAMN MAID!" she said, impaling one enemy through its head with her new staff, obliterating its main motherboard easily. "I DON'T CLEAN PEOPLE'S MESSES!" Her frying pan hand smashed another minion's head clean off. "AND I'M NOBODY'S PERSONAL COOK!" With that declaration, her rampage continued as she found more brutal ways to disassemble the robot horde that was plaguing the warehouse, yelling profanity as she went. Soon enough, she surpassed the efforts of "Proto Woman" and "Rush", venting her immense frustration out on any that come even remotely near her as she ran through the place. Danny could do nothing but watch the fury in action.

"Note to self: Help out around the house more…" he said to himself, calmly walking forward, surveying the damage.

Tucker and Valerie followed, just as casually. Tucker shook his head. "I knew this would happen. I wonder if she discovered that one wacky weapon Roll had in a fighting game…"

All the sudden, there was an explosion from the other side of the warehouse, followed by an outcry of "FINALLY! SOMETHING USEFUL!". And then there were more explosions.

"The bouquet of flowers that's actually a bomb in disguise? I'd say she discovered it." Danny replied as if he were discussing the weather. At this point, he gave up trying to keep everyone in order. As long as it helped foil this supergroup of musical jackasses, he'd take it.

Like in most video games, the warehouse 'level' that they were in was supposed to have a boss battle. That was until the boss in question, a buff-looking humanoid-shaped robot going by the alias of Guts Man, was ambushed by what appeared to be a malfunctioning Roll utilizing a frying pan and a bouquet of (explosive) roses. Guts Man wasn't sure what that particular robotic unit was angry about. It certainly wasn't in her programmed personality at all. Was she turning corrupt like the rest of Dr. Wily's recruited forces? Finally, a blow to that blue dweeb Mega Man, having his 'sister unit' go on the fritz!

But that moment of malicious thought was cut aside as Roll attacked Guts Man again, clubbing the hefty bot with her frying pan. The blow jarred him, his vision temporarily disoriented as the camera lenses that were his eyes were knocked out of focus. Her pan rained down on him repeatedly as Guts Man heard the normally-cheerful bot rant and rave about somebody named 'Josey'. Angered, Guts Man shoved Roll back, sending her tumbling back a good few feet.

"That hurt! Your aggression confuses me, but it won't stop me from crus—" His rant was interrupted by a flowery bomb to the face. "AAH! Guts Man's hurt again!"

"Shut up, musclehead! The sooner I beat you, the sooner we can get outta this game!" snapped Roll, very uncharacteristically. The pause in action let Guts Man realize that Roll looked a little different. Why was her blonde ponytailed hair…moving? It looked almost like a fire…

"Game…? You think this is a GAME?! This is serious business! Even I know that!" Guts Man bellowed, storming forward with a fist cocked back for a punch. Corrupt or not, she still attacked him. Roll leapt over the large robo-goon easily enough. He cursed his luck as, yet again, he realized too late that his size left him at a speed disadvantage to more agile bots like her. Nonetheless… he saw that he was charging right for a cube-shaped metal crate. Perfect… He stopped right in front of it, grabbed it, and lifted it over his head.

"Throwing large weights? Obvious jock move!" Roll taunted with a tone of cold steel, the surreal nature of which jarred Guts Man mentally. This definitely was not like Mega Man's sister unit at all. It would take some getting used to… if Guts Man were to let her live, which he was too angry to at the moment. He threw the crate.

Roll simply…rolled out of the way, the crate crashing right where she was standing before, skidding harmlessly to a stop. "Nice throw, if you wanted to give someone an easy hit in baseball!" the rude robo-girl spat. Guts Man's ire was provoked again. He grabbed another nearby crate and hurled that one toward her without a thought. His aim was a little off, which was enough for Roll to take one step to the right to completely avoid it. Seeing her take such a nonchalant action to avoid his attack struck another nerve.

"Now that was just sloppy." Roll taunted. The maid-bot that is now Ember was still beyond enraged about the implications of her chosen role in this game, but she found herself having a little fun using this lunk of a robot villain like a stress ball. He almost reminded her of Skulker, which made this more amusing for her.

"I'LL SHOW YA SLOPPY!" Guts Man screamed, running toward her again, this time not unlike a charging bull. In response, as if her body knew what she was thinking, Roll's frying pan disappeared, quickly replacing itself with a hand holding a red towel. She posed like a bullfighter, holding the towel outward. A couple of seconds later, she sidestepped his charge, Guts Man hitting the towel instead of any part of Roll, the towel ripped from her hands and hanging over his head, blinding him.

"Ole!" Ember teased as he ran past her. She then heard a loud 'CLANG!' from behind. Turning around, she saw that Guts Man had ran into a long, red, thin shield that was shaped like some sort of sci-fi surfboard. It had been deliberately placed in Guts Man's path seconds before by its owner, "Proto Woman", who was standing behind it, holding it up. The shield now had a sizable dent in it and Guts Man had collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

"I halfway expected that not to work. Damn, now that's a shield!" Valerie said with satisfied amazement as she returned it to her back. She then gave her shield arm a few cautious shakes. "Impact still hurt like a bitch, though. My arm's still vibrating from it."

"Are we done here? I kinda would like to be human again… If I have to taste steel and oil one more time…" Tucker complained, impatiently. His mouth had a few loose springs and gears hanging from it from all the biting and gnawing he had to do. There was even a hard hat on his head, courtesy of one of the smaller enemies that was nothing more than a little bot with a weak blaster using a hard hat as a shield.

"Well, you're not only a horndog, but you're a tech fanatic as well, so it fits." Valerie joked, reiterating what Ember had said before. 'Mega Dan' approached Ember, who still looked dour.

"Nice job, Ember… You beat the whole level pretty much by yourself!" he said, impressed. Nervous, but impressed. Ember huffed, glaring at him silently. If this were an anime, Danny would have a couple of visible large drops of sweat suddenly appearing on his helmet about now.

"Yeah, I guess I did… Thanks, Dipstick. But do me one favor…" Ember said calmly. A moment passed before Ember suddenly reached out and pulled his head in close to hers so that she was staring intensely into his eyes. "When we find this Josey jackass, you focus on finding Goth Chick and Baby-Dip, ok? Josey is MY bitch, no matter how huge he is or what his weapons are. Got it?!"

Danny nervously nodded his head. "Got it!" Ember let go and visibly relaxed, her plan settled. It was at that moment that their surroundings, from the other side of the warehouse coming toward the foursome, turned into nothing but binary code, a mysterious loud voice proclaiming…..

"GAME… OVER!"

The vision of seeing nothing but eternal zeroes and ones faded and the four heroes found themselves on a giant dance floor, a whole horde of the undead mingling and dancing to the funky 80's music that blasted from numerous speakers scattered along the walls. The dance floor was nothing but a field of quickly-changing multicolored squares of lights, the walls completely covered in posters of 80's bands and movies. Through the crowd of zombies, the group thought they could barely make out what seems to be fairly large figure in the center of the dance floor, also dancing about. The look of the huge room gave off the vibe that this might be the floor they were looking for.

"I. See. You. Made. It! Of course, any sucka would have enough funk to handle the lower floors of my new club! But getting up here? Luck, I guess, would have to shine on a few remedial fools here and there! In any case, WELCOME. TO. MY. THRONE. ROOM!" Unlike the rest of the conversations with Josey, his autotuned voice didn't come from any speaker this time. The loud voice came from the middle of the dance floor. The section of the dancing horde of zombies between the heroes and Josey parted like the Red Sea, revealing their mysterious tormentor at last.

Dressed eccentrically in a horribly-bright pink fur coat, a dark pink top hat with many little skull décor circling the base of it, sneakers that for some reason were high-heeled, and…. a diaper… Josey pressed keys on his bright pink, star-themed keytar, dancing to his own groove. Unlike the rest of the superpowered music-themed ghouls Danny and Ember had met, Josey appeared to be the least decomposed of the group, almost looking like he could be alive. As the slightly-robotic voice might have led them to believe, Josey was indeed African-American, his face painted up in a voodoo skull design, dreadlocks framing said face.

Ember couldn't hide her disgust over a certain fact about his appearance. "Ew! What's with the diaper?!"

"Cocaine is a hell of a drug, baby!" was the response she got, Josey throwing in a few pelvic gyrations for effect. Not a pleasant display…

"Shouldn't have been surprising. We're battling the 1980's." Tucker commented sardonically, drawing his Fenton-brand ecto gun. Despite the group bracing for battle, nobody and nothing of the dark forces made any move to attack yet. They just kept dancing.

"Where are my friends, you freak?" Danny asked, not caring about the zombie's drug-induced fashion choices. He had an ecto-beam powered up, his glowing hand aimed right at the 80's junkie. Josey didn't even stop his playing, much less even look annoyed by the threat.

"You. Mean. My. New. Fuck. Buddies? They're right here. Behind me." Slightly moving to the side, the four gasped and gawked as they saw the still-unconscious Dani and Sam tangled in the arms of two zombie prostitutes, the zombies obviously leading their dancing as the hostages flopped along. "I. Was. Just. About. To. Show. Them. The. S-E-X-X-X. But my lovely assistants seem to enjoy grooving with them. Then. You. Showed. Up."

"Yeah. We showed up. You're going to let them go. Now." Danny demanded, his rage growing. He would not have anything close to a repeat of a certain incident at the Nasty Burger… Not on his watch. Josey's keytar playing increased in speed as the Dark Purveyor laughed. Even that sounded autotuned through his keytar's microphone attachment.

"Hell no, you. Unfunky. Little. Boy-Bitch! We were hired to do a job and the funk master always completes his groove. Your women, while not on the job description, are mine. You. Won't. Need. Them. Where. You're. Going." Josey said, chuckling malevolently. His laughter was cut short by a pink fist of energy and a loud electric guitar chord, courtesy of Ember.

"Your fight's with me first, you incontinent fashion disaster!" the ghostly diva challenged, stepping past Danny with her guitar at the ready. Josey grinned, much to everyone's chagrin.

"If it isn't the little housewife! Did. You. Have. Fun. With. Vacuums. And. Frying. Pans?" Josey mocked, having overseen the entire Mega Man game. Ember's ponytail flared again as she ran at Josey, the minion horde doing nothing to stop her. Unfortunately, Josey's keytar intercepted Ember's axe when she swung for his head. The two instrumental blunt weapons stayed together as both combatants were locked in a test of strength.

"You're going to wish I was cooking you in a frying pan, Skull Face!" Ember retorted, pushing as hard as she could. It remained a stalemate for the time being, until Josey quickly took a hand off his keytar long enough to reach in his fur coat and withdraw a pixelated bomb, the fuse already lit.

Seeing this, Ember jumped back, the keytar barely missing her as it no longer had any resistance. Josey chucked the bomb at her. She ran even further back, the bomb exploding. The blast radius wasn't big, but it would've hurt. "What are you guys waiting for? Get the girls! I'll deal with 'Papa Shango' over there." Ember ordered, noticing that the others were watching the conflict.

"Want to dance one. On. One. Huh? I can dig it, sucka! Your others are no matter. They will merely be funked out!" Josey scoffed, his keytar ready for another swing. Ember approached him again, this time slowly, more alert. Like two swordsmen of old, the two warriors started to pace slowly in a circle. Tense. Ready to make the first strike, but aware that the other might strike first. Despite the glaring multicolor lights of the dance floor, the tacky old synth music, and the mindless horde that surrounded them yet gave them space, the two managed to tune it all out to focus on the one moment they needed to find.

As this was happening, Danny, Valerie, and Tucker began fighting against the mass of zombie dancers, who immediately took to fighting back as best they could. Unfortunately, a few that were scattered about the crowd were those boombox-carrying 'shield generator' zombies, rendering groups that surrounded them invulnerable to attack. It took some expert sharpshooting from Valerie to get a clear shot at any of the boombox carriers surrounded by the undead mass of undead shields. Even though they had Valerie's skills, the difficulty did give the enemy horde enough time for the two zombie hookers that had Sam and Dani in their clutches to move away from the approaching heroes, putting more enemies between them.

"Is it just me or are these deadheads getting smarter? It's not easy getting clear shots of these boombox idiots with the invincible ones blocking the way." Valerie grumbled as another shot came close to nicking a boombox zombie but failed when another flailing minion took the hit completely unaware and totally unaffected by it.

"Let's just fly over them." Danny suggested, almost facepalming himself for momentarily forgetting that ability as he left the ground. It was too bad that Josey came prepared for all occasions. On the ceiling, unnoticed by any of the four heroes, hung what appeared to be a stereotypical UFO, its diameter similar to the length of an SUV, the grey exterior decked out in harshly bright neon colors. The UFO, however, was no mere decoration, as Danny came to find out when the multicolored 'light fixture' on the center of its bottom side suddenly fired a blast of neon energy at him, knocking him back to the ground hard. It took all he had in his dazed state to roll out of the way of a couple of grabby zombies he landed near.

"Play. By. My. Rules. Mother. Funker!" Josey chortled, not taking his demonic-looking bloodshot eyes off of Ember as the two guitarist warriors continued their intense staredown, looking for a moment of weakness. Ember finally swung first, her blow intercepted again by Josey, who merely blocked and went for a slicing blow of his own. Ember blocked before giving him a kick to the gut and tried for an underhanded swing, hoping to uppercut him with her guitar. Josey rolled aside, dodging the incoming attack, landed on one knee near Ember and swung at her legs. The ghostly rocker jumped over his arc and brought her guitar down in a clubbing motion. Josey pulled himself backward in time, his momentum causing him to fall onto his back. With a kick of his legs, he immediately kipped up to his feet again, taking a fighting stance.

"The benefactor wasn't kidding about you being able to bring the funk. You. Merely. Delay. Your. Death. Besides… I know you're tired. My friends you destroyed… They. Wore. You. Out!" Josey sang before playing a few keys on his pink keytar rapidly, the weapon suddenly glowing before the giant star at the bottom of it shot a beam of neon energy at her, catching Ember unaware and knocking her backward. As she hit the ground, Josey lumbered forward and jumped on her back, beginning to groove on her, his heeled sneakers jabbing, scraping, and scratching her as if she were a welcome mat for muddy shoes. He couldn't help singing as he did this, not caring about the shrieks and screams of pain from his enemy beneath him.

"_How does it feel?_

_To treat me like you do?_

_When you laid your hands upon me_

_And told me who you are?_

_Thought I was mistaken._

_I thought I heard your words._

_Tell me, how do I feel?_

_Tell me now! HOW DO I FEEL?!"_

With one final harsh jabbing stomp of his pointed heel as he sang the last words of that particular verse, he leapt off of her and observed his handiwork. There were a few puncture wounds on Ember's back from his heels along with a series of already-forming bruises and bleeding cuts. Whatever was left of her already battle-worn tank top was now useless as one of Josey's scrapings had ripped through the material, exposing her back and most likely her front too upon getting up off the floor. She picked the wrong day to try to go on a date braless…

"You call yourself a competitor? You couldn't handle one song!" the eccentric ghoul bragged, pointing his keytar by Ember's neck, the swordsman's way of putting a fallen foe in checkmate. "Any. Last. Requests?"

"How about 'Don't You Forget About Me', bastard!" the voice of a certain halfa shouted from behind the Dark Purveyor as Josey was sucker-punched in the back of his head, launching Josey forward until he bowled into a group of zombie dancers, all of which crumpled to the ground in a wriggling pile of body parts.

"That… Breakfast Club… song? Jeez, Dipstick, we…. already feel like… the movie's cast if… the principal decided to do physical punishment instead…" Ember said, trying to get up but failing, the puncture wounds causing pain to flare up, despite her ghostly state. Danny noticed the green ectoplasm that was her blood starting to bleed out of her slowly. He also noticed the ripped tank top slide forward and off of her when she tried getting up. "And here I thought… ghosts couldn't feel this much pain…" Her ponytail, which could be used to gauge her power, was reduced to a little stub of fire hair…

"Tucker! Valerie! We got a problem here!" Danny called, kneeling down to inspect his girlfriend. He felt the rage building up again. No… No, he mustn't give in to that part of him…

"Sorry, Danny! A little busy here!" Tucker yelled back. The two gunners had a little stroke of luck when Valerie finally sniped a couple of boombox carriers, rendering a couple of sections of zombies vulnerable to numerous headshots.

"Ember… You're gonna be fine." Danny said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. Ember smiled a little.

"That felt good… Say my name again…" she ordered. Then it hit him. Of course! Attention! It wouldn't be a full-fledged heal, but it'd keep her going for the time being. And so, keeping a cautious eye on the pile of zombies that Josey landed in, he began chanting her name to her. "Ember… Ember… EmBER… EmBER… EMBER!... EMBER!..." he started low, but kept getting louder and louder as he noticed her ponytail slowly grow again. Some of her cuts and bruises began to fade, but her puncture wounds only closed up, the signs that they were there still obvious as was the pain.

"That's about as good as we're gonna get, Baby-Pop. Thanks…" Ember said as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees. One person could only do so much. Her attention-based power boosts usually required a crowd. She then noticed the shredded strip of black fabric on the ground… and then looked down toward herself. "Aah!" She lifted herself to a kneeling position and covered her bare breasts with her hands.

"Um… Guys?! We got another problem over here!" Danny called again, this time his voice having a little bit of amusement in it. "Anybody got a spare shirt?

Right as he said that, Josey burst forth from the squirming pile of overturned ghouls. "You. Gonna. Pay. Sucka! Everybody get funky now!" he declared, playing his keytar again, seemingly pressing certain keys in a certain order. The bottom of his laser-shooting UFO opened up and a beam of light hit him, pulling him up into it. The UFO detached itself from the ceiling and hovered in midair, Josey now sitting on top of the UFO, playing more synthetic music. "Space party funk-o-tron, baby!"

He began shooting neon beams of energy toward all four heroes, at random and one shot at a time. "Oh, come on! It's hard enough dealing with these guys!" Tucker groaned, barely sidestepping a shot. Josey might have heard the techie's complaint, as the funk zombie then stepped up his barrage by throwing more pixelated bombs toward everyone, the lasers still firing. "The more you complain, the louder my music gets, little bitch!" Josey chided, tossing another bomb.

Danny had picked Ember up bridal-style and began weaving his way through the minions, some of which were still invincible from their nearby shield generator. He didn't care. He needed to free his friends. He needed to stop Josey. He really needed to find Ember a shirt! Kind of hard for a young superhero to concentrate on saving the world when his girlfriend's 'assets' keep bouncing near him in his field of vision, just trying to distract him…

'Gotta keep moving. Where are they? Shit, those are nice… No, not now! Move, Danny, move! Ugh… So many zombies… Which ones have Sam and Dani?' thought Danny as he ran. At least Ember had enough awareness to grab her guitar as Danny picked her up. After a minute of weaving through the undead, Ember started playing loud chords, creating sound waves of energy that pushed the zombies out of their way. It was kind of tricky to do in her current position, but a musician was always prepared, as she preferred to believe.

As the duo barreled through the crowd, they eventually came across the hostage-bearing zombie hookers they were looking for, still dancing and paying no heed to the chaos surrounding them. Danny tried to approach, but a laser from Josey's UFO cut him off. He tried again. Nothing this time, due to Josey firing at Valerie. Danny approached the dancing zombies. Sam and Dani were still unconscious, to which both concerned and relieved Danny. He wasn't sure that they'd like it if a zombie's face was their first sight when they wake up… The hookers finally noticed they had unwanted company and pulled away from the two heroes… "Thissss isss… my girlfriend…" one hissed in a gurgling voice, clutching Sam tighter. "Miiiinneee…"

"Hate to break it to ya, but she's already taken." Danny quipped as suddenly, from behind the two zombies, another Danny came up from beneath them and quickly froze their heads with his cryokenetic power. Before the two zombies could fall, taking the girls with them, the duplicate phased Sam and Dani out of their grasp, awkwardly helping the two land safely on the ground at the same time before he merged back with Danny.

"Whew… Good thing I saved up enough energy for that. I had split myself when I saw that you were in trouble, Em. I had a hunch that would be helpful somehow…" he explained when he noticed his girlfriend's inquiring look.

"I hope that didn't take a lot out of you. We still have 'Space Ghost' to beat up." Ember said, tilting her head upward to the randomly orbiting neon UFO still firing lasers and dropping bombs toward Tucker and Valerie who were switching targets from the zombies to Josey and back again.

"I know it's probably dumb to ask, but you still wanna beat this guy or should I? One of us should keep an eye on Dani and Sam until they wake up." Danny asked, glancing back and forth between the menacing UFO and his knocked out best friend and clone. Ember growled, wanting another shot at him for all he put her through, but knowing that she was too worn down from his previous dance routine…

"Fine… I hate this, but fine. I'll watch Gothy and Baby-Dip. You know this isn't fair, right?" the rocker grumped as Danny gently placed her down next to the other girls. Before he could stand back up, Ember shoved her guitar into his hands and crossed her arms over her exposed chest, glaring. "You use that on him for me, ok?"

This surprised Danny. Nobody ever used her guitar except her. Somebody else using it was, to Ember, extremely off-limits. But here she was, insisting that he use it. His shock must have registered on his face somehow, because Ember briefly snickered. "Baby-Pop, just go. I trust you with my guitar. Besides, situation's kinda grim here…" She trailed off, defiant against sounding any more vulnerable than this fight already made her. "Go on. Iron Maiden and Friar Tuck ain't gonna last forever! Go!" she insisted, seeing her boyfriend looking like he was about to launch into a thousand questions.

That got him moving. Gripping the neck of the guitar tightly in the battle axe style, he launched himself toward the UFO, hoping that Tucker and Valerie's barrage of bullets will keep Josey's attention. Flying high enough to see the top of the UFO, he was thankful that Josey was indeed focusing on the two gunners below. Landing as softly as he could on the UFO, standing behind Josey, he adjusted his guitar so that he could play it. With a mischievous smirk of his own on his face that could match Ember's, he strummed a hard, deafening chord.

The noise surprised Josey, causing him to flinch hard. His jarred motions turned the control sticks he had a grip on in a completely wrong way, causing him to lose control of the UFO. "You persistent bitch! When I straighten this funk out, I'm gonna… Agh! My! Ears!" Josey screamed as he frantically worked the controls to straighten the aircraft out, which he did after a few moments. It was difficult with the constant grating noise of an electric guitar playing at full volume in point-blank range drilling through his eardrums.

After a few moments, the UFO hovered normally again and Josey pressed a convenient button marked 'Cruise Control' before grabbing his keytar and jabbing it up over his head and behind him. Danny quickly avoided it by stepping to his left and then swinging his own instrument at him. It was blocked at the last second when Josey pulled his weapon back and intercepted. "You?! You. Wanna. Play? Fine!" the cocaine-fueled villain scoffed, shoving Danny's guitar away with his. He then started frantically pressing keys on his board, waves of energy shooting out at Danny. Similar to how Ember sometimes attacks… Being pushed back painfully by the neon wave of sound, Danny started playing Ember's guitar, green waves of sound shooting out, immediately countering Josey's sound wave.

Josey's funky sound was starkly contrasted by Danny's sheer recklessness of not knowing how to properly string together chords to form a proper melody. The result was a synth-funk-rock nightmare this side of 1989… Danny couldn't be blamed for it. He didn't know how to play music, but the musical weapon produced results, so he went with it. Unfortunately, Ember, Tucker, and Valerie probably didn't see it that way… On the bright side, the army of dancing zombies seemed to react negatively to the clashing sounds, as if trying to keep up with an impossible beat and failing miserably. Their misguidedness ended up having them accidentally bump into each other, getting hit with flailing limbs, and clumsily destroying the shield-generating boomboxes of those that were carrying them.

Tucker and Valerie, stunned at the new development, grinned. Thoughts of satisfying vengeance rolled through the duo's mind as they raised their weapons and fired into the freaked-out horde. Like rotting fish in a barrel.

Back aboard the UFO, Josey and Danny were struggling. Their shock waves of power pushing against each other as they kept playing. It was only a matter of time until one of them ran out of power. Sadly for the halfa, Josey didn't have three other tough fights before this encounter. He had more energy to spare, even if he was currently struggling to outgun the ghostly target of his benefactor. Danny knew this, his mind rapidly thinking of a backup plan. Should he? No, he tried that already. What about…? Nah, too low on power. But what if…? Crap. If only he had the Fenton Ghost Peeler suit or something!

As the struggle was getting him nowhere, Danny stopped playing and leapt backward off the side of the UFO just before Josey's wave of music power could hit him. Regaining his balance by flight just beneath the UFO, he saw something that gave him an idea. If he couldn't beat him just yet, he could at least weaken his super-weapon before he starts using it again. Quietly flying to the center of the UFO's underside, he took Ember's guitar, poured a bit of his power into it, and started swinging for the half-orb of multicolored lights.

The first shot cracked the orb, dimming a handful of lights. Some sparks of electricity began shooting out of it. Danny swung again. The cracks grew bigger, the sparks becoming more frequent, and more of the lights blinked off. The UFO started to shake a little, as if starting to have a little trouble floating properly. Danny tried for lucky swing number three. The orb shattered completely, glass and electricity flying outward. Danny braced himself from the debris and recovered just in time to notice the ship having noticeable problems flying, wobbling ceaselessly.

"No! Way! You did not just break MY ship! FUNK YOU, SQUARE!" Josey screamed as he tried to take control of his malfunctioning ship. Nothing worked. He would go down. Or crash into a wall. He wasn't sure. Another explosion from beneath told him that the infuriating ghost kid had fired something into the bottom of his ship, hastening its destruction.

This vehicle was totally funked…

Sam Manson awoke with a start, the last thing she remembered being a fist hitting her from somehow being discovered during a stealth mission. "Wha? Where am I? What's with all the crappy neon?" she asked herself as she slowly sat up, her jaw aching from the knockout punch she had taken. Looking around, she saw something she hadn't expected to see: a topless Ember McLain, sitting near her, her head facing elsewhere as if watching something.

Having accepted her new bisexual outlook, Sam had to admit that Ember looked pretty good…for a former villain. And despite being someone that looked like she had gone 18 rounds against Frostbite... She couldn't help but stare a few seconds before remembering the problem at hand. "Uh… Ember?" she asked, getting her attention. The rocker turned toward her, surprised. "Oh! Uh… Hey, Goth Chick… You alright?" Ember tried to be as nonchalant as possible, but Sam could tell that something was truly bugging the rock star.

"Ugh… Just a migraine and a hurt jaw… When I get my hands on whoever punched me…!" Sam growled. At that moment, Dani stirred, groaning. Ember responded to Sam. "Better take a number. We've been trying to whup ass all morning."

The little clone sat up, also feeling achy from being knocked out. "Anybody get the number of that—Whoa…" Dani trailed off as she noticed Ember. Inheriting her original's taste in women, she too couldn't help but stare. However, being the younger one of less tact, her gawking was too obvious as Ember's face changed to an annoyed 'What're ya lookin' at?' expression. "Um… I can see one… I mean, two big reasons why Danny likes you a lot…" Dani explained sheepishly. Ember's eyes bugged out as she remembered her embarrassing predicament and crossed her arms over her chest again, severely blushing.

"Do ya freakin' mind?!" Ember shrieked.

"Alright, alright! Sorry! So what's the story anyway? Did we win?" Sam asked, changing the topic to more pressing matters. Ember glared, but went with the conversation anyway.

"Long story short, look over there." Ember said curtly as she turned her head back to where she was watching. The three women looked over to see a spread-out pile of dead zombies, a crashed flying vehicle that was partially on fire, and two figures sword fighting in front of the wrecked hovercraft. One of which was very recognizable to the two now-conscious ladies.

"How long has that been going on?" Dani asked, worried for her 'cousin's sake.

"This fight after that UFO crashed? Going on 5 minutes, I'd figure. This whole encounter with this jackoff? About a half hour. How long it took to try and get to him and stop him overall? Honestly, I lost track. The main reason why I'm not out there fighting along with Baby-Pop is because… the creep kicked my ass already…" Ember did not like admitting that unfortunate fact, but it bothered her just as much that she couldn't be out there. "My back looks like I tried to sleep on a bed of spikes." She halfheartedly joked. "I don't get that asshole's fashion choices, but high-heeled sneakers did help me 'get his point'…" Sam and Dani cringed at her last statement, not wanting to try and picture how that possibly happened.

"I'm sorry, Ember…" Dani said, not sure what else she could say about that as they watched Danny and Josey clash with guitars. That's when Sam realized…

"He's using your guitar!? You let him use your guitar? That's…" Sam went silent. When Team Phantom was trying to get to know their sudden new recruit better, Ember had made it crystal clear that nobody was to use her guitar, that it meant everything to her as a musician (and as a ghostly obsession, not that she said that part aloud).

"I trust Baby-Pop with it. Completely. Besides, I was beat, Friar Tuck and Iron Maiden were busy with zombie problems, and he needed it. I insisted." she explained with a shrug. An autotuned grunt of pain indicated that Danny had parried an attack and countered with a successful hit. From where they were seated, the girls watched Danny follow up his hit with a knee to the face and then another guitar shot, this time the flat side slamming upon Josey's top-hat-clad head. Said hat fell off his head as Josey dazedly stumbled backward from the blow, keytar still in hand.

They then saw Danny wave to somebody, which turned out to be Tucker and Red Huntress. They approached from near the UFO and started firing at the weakened Josey. "Unfair! UNFAAAIR!" the three could hear the 80's ghoul belt out in his semi-robotic voice as bullets and beams of energy pummeled him. Sam and Ember both rolled their eyes at the villain's accusation. Oh, when it's him and about 200 mostly-protected zombies against 4, that's supposedly fair? And… what the hell was Danny doing? Was that…. the Moonwalk?!

Indeed, Danny was taunting Josey by moonwalking over to him while the villain was put down on his knees from the barrage of energy. When he slid in next to him, the shooting stopped and Ember's guitar found itself by his neck, imbued with his energy to give it a cutting edge. "I just have one question for ya. If you answer to my liking, maybe I'll think about changing this fate. How many more of you are there? Are you the last one?" Danny asked. He noticed Josey's keytar arm slowly moving. "And don't even think about swinging that. We both know this guitar's going through faster than you can strike me with it."

"Ok, ok! Don't slow the funk. Ok. I surrender. Alright… I know you already sent three of my buddies to the clubhouse down under. And then there's me. But I'll level with you, since it won't matter much in the long run anyway. Not at your pathetic state anyway… You only got one more to deal with. Just one funky cat left. That's. It."

Danny appeared to mull it over for a moment. Josey appeared nervous. He'd be sweating if he could. The halfa then pulled the guitar away from Josey. Why would he lie about that at this point? He was right. They had Josey dead to rights enough to confess the intel, but they were also running on fumes from all the fighting. Still…

Josey breathed a sigh of relief. He had been beat, but unlike last time he came to Earth, perhaps he'd be allowed to do some—

*SLICE!*

Josey's head went flying, the look of relief still on his face as he never saw Danny swing Ember's guitar at him from behind. Danny and Ember learned one thing quickly about this band of hitmen that Vlad apparently summoned: They were merciless. They wouldn't stop. Josey already proved that with his murderous rampage before he even hid himself away in the arcade.

Still, for all intents and purposes, it did seem a lot like Danny executing someone… He fell to his knees, suddenly feeling so very tired… So worn. As Josey died, so did the music... and the lights of the dance floor. Moments later, the entire room burst into tv static, just like when they were in the arcade machines, the group engulfed in television nothingness.

It didn't take long for all the static to implode on itself until all six members of Team Phantom found themselves in a perfectly normal interior of the Amityville Scorer. Nothing out of place. Everything in working order. And best of all, not one thing even remotely referencing the 1980's. Tucker and Valerie ran over to the fallen Danny, gently helping him up. He clutched Ember's guitar to himself, the adrenaline rush wearing off. "How… How are we gonna deal with one more…? We're beat… Ember needs to heal, I'm running on fumes here, I'm sure you two have at least gone through a good chunk of ammo…. Oh jeez, Sam! Dani! Are you two ok!?" he asked, panic seemingly set in as he hobbled his way over to them, exhausted.

"Relax, Danny. We're fine. Just got a headache is all. Mouth hurts a little too." Sam responded reassuringly, knowing Danny's hero complex. So overprotective at times…

"Yeah, Cuz. They didn't get a chance to do anything to us, thanks to you." Dani said as she got up and gave her weary original a hug, much to Danny's sore discomfort.

"Ah! Dani! Still a little tender…!" Danny grunted, accepting the hug anyway.

Ember rolled her eyes. "Still a little topless here." she added, chuckling. At that, Danny looked. Of course… And then quickly looked away as Ember snickered at her boyfriend's goofy antics. "Oh, just go get me a shirt, Dipstick!" she ordered through her laughter. "Bad enough I got the three of you wanting this!" she teased, purposefully sticking her chest out to bother Sam and Dani. Tucker and Valerie groaned, having turned away respectfully.

"Not our fault that weirdo somehow ripped your tank top off!" Sam countered, crossing her arms.

"Sammy, we can't blame her for that. They've been fighting hard battles all morning. Danny's hazmat suit isn't much better…" Dani observed, trying to be fair. Sure enough, Danny's uniform was even more tore up after the ordeal with Josey.

"Can we at least blame her for choosing to go braless?" Sam asked, smirking at the rock star, who replied by sticking her tongue out.

"Did any of us know this was gonna happen?" Dani countered. All six people thought about that for approximately half a second.

"Nope!" they all said in unison. Sam sighed. "Alright, I'll just blame Vlad."

"That's pretty much rule number two in the Team Phantom playbook. Always blame Vlad." Danny quipped, tossing Ember a t-shirt with the Amityville Scorer logo on it.

"What's rule number one?" Valerie asked.

"Don't talk about Team Phantom." Everyone else groaned at Danny's obvious Fight Club pun, Ember tossing her shirt right back at him so that it landed on his head to blind him. The rocker mockingly booed him for added effect.

Taking the shirt off his head and tossing it back to her, Danny stood by Ember and passed her guitar back. "Thank you for letting me use it, Ember. You were right. I did need this." he said, smiling at her. Ember grinned as she took her beloved instrument back.

"Always trust the woman's intuition, Dipstick." Ember bragged before she gingerly put her new shirt on.

"Alright, so… Where do we go from here?" Tucker asked. And just like that, the witty banter was over. Back to business. Sam and Dani looked at each other.

"I know where." Sam said in a cryptic tone.

"City Hall." Dani said.

It suddenly made sense to Danny. That coward Plasmius. Why send all of his hitmen out into the city when he could have at least one of them hanging around to back him up? Typical villain tactics… So that's how Sam and Dani got caught. It was suddenly very fortunate that Josey had been the supergroup's resident sex offender… If they were stuck at Vlad's…. Danny did NOT want to continue that train of thought!

"Alright. Fine. We go to Fenton Works, we stock up, we try to heal what we can because we don't exactly have all day and Vlad might suspect his assholes have failed him eventually if not soon, and then… we conduct a little 'town meeting' at City Hall to discuss our 'good' mayor's recent town redecorating. Sound good?"

"Fine with us." Valerie said as everyone else nodded.

"Good. Team Phantom, transform and roll out!" Danny declared, finger pointed dramatically toward the front door. Everyone stared at him, the sound of crickets suddenly audible. Danny held the pose, suddenly feeling like he did something foolish.

"Transformers, Dipstick…?" Ember asked, quite appalled.

"What's one more 80's reference? I kinda wanted to try it out…" Danny awkwardly explained.

"I'm not sure if that's Fun Danny taking over again or if his mind's just that exhausted…" Tucker admitted, his hands raised in an annoyed surrender gesture. "We're doomed…"

On the roof of the arcade, Josey's head and body lay prone and dead, his discarded top hat flopped on its side near him. The now-broken keytar still clutched in one hand. A purple vortex appeared in the sky, sucking up nothing but the defeated corpse of the Master of Funk. As his head and body was pulled toward it, Josey's mouth moved, his malevolent soul proclaiming one final statement… in song with autotune.

"Meus! Vita! Rege! Pro! Nefario! Coeptooooooo…!"

The vortex and the corpse vanished into nonexistence, just like the rest. Normalcy had returned to this neighborhood of Amity Park after a long morning of terror. The idea of which disgusted the final Dark Purveyor who was perched on top of City Hall like a statue. His four comrades, dead. Again. Just like last time… Why did he even bother with those lunkheads when they can't complete one simple job? The last time was understandable. That was world domination. An insanely tough job, by any means. This is just a mere mercenary hit on a couple of teenagers!

But no matter… They'll come to him. They're bound to after he caught the ghost kid's pair of rats sneaking around. It was a simple matter of enticing Funk Master Josey with some fresh pussy to get the rats back to their leader. If Josey won, then all was rightfully evil with the world. But now, the rats'll get them to come here by telling what they found. Why go out when they can come to you? Heh… Besides, he'll swing on his terms, not theirs.

That's just how a Legend like him rolled for a good rumble…

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** And I thought the Mariska chapter was long! Jeez, one idea leads to another and into yet another. Lol. In any case, as I said before, I'm hoping that the family situation I mentioned hasn't affected the quality of my writing, as it was a stressful time for me. So, I strongly encourage you all to chime in and leave some reviews. I would appreciate your thoughts and opinions!

As for the Mega Man part of the story, I intentionally went with some iterations of Roll where she primarily had goofy weaponry based on housecleaning/cooking. Since Josey was technically in control of things, I figured that would be his way of insulting the wild and proud Ember. I know Roll usually has her own version of the Mega Buster and whatnot. Lol. I hope any Mega Man fans don't mind.

Also, I had to take some more liberties about the boss fight with Josey. While he does have energy beams, flies around in a UFO, and throws pixelated bombs, the boss fight in the game is still different.

I would do my Reader Review Replies, but there wasn't much since the last update, so I'll say a hearty Thank You to those that did review.

Next: The Boss Man Cometh…..


	6. To Live And Die For Rock N Roll

It's finally coming down to the wire, people! Been a while since I updated, as usual. Granted, it's been quite a while for some of my other fics…. but I digress. I just hope everyone enjoys what I'm posting.

Disclaimer: As if I really need to say anything at this point.

Chapter 6: To Live And Die For Rock And Roll

To say that Vlad Masters was worried was an understatement. This long and he still had yet to hear of the death of that repugnant halfa nemesis of his, either from the news or his new 'comrades'. He knew of young Daniel's track record first hand. The halfa wasn't weak, by any means. But he had felt the 5 sinister beings' power when he accidentally summoned them. There was no way that brat could beat them all up, even with help. Could he? Did he?

If Daniel won, Vlad knew he would be in quite the quandary. Ever since his grudge against Daniel began, there was one fortunate thing that always seemed to happen, no matter what evil tactics Vlad used: Nobody had died. At all. By sheer luck or by Daniel's skill, every conflict never seemed to garner a body count. All well and good for Vlad, since he preferred to have subjects to rule over. Besides, no deaths meant less loose ends to tie up and evidence to dispose of. So much tedious work…

But now people had been killed. By his new associates, no less. Daniel would be angry about that, Vlad knew. He could appeal to the halfa's heroic tendencies to ensure that the young man wouldn't resort to killing him. But that wouldn't stop him from trying to beat him up. Trying being the key word, as Vlad's mind rationed that Daniel and his rapscallion friends would already be worn down by his new minions by the time they catch up to him. It might leave a chance for Vlad Plasmius to pick off the scraps.

Still, it would be best to prepare for the worst, just in case his own powers somehow weren't enough. He thought this as he stockpiled all his acquired ghost weaponry from the lab he had set up in City Hall when he moved in. Just as he finished checking the final gun in his arsenal as the local news continued blaring as mere background noise, a presence made itself known to Vlad by appearing in front of him, phasing down from the roof.

"Your bounty seems more talented than we had anticipated, boss man. All four of my fellow greasers are no more… I would say that I'm a little concerned here, but I'd be lyin' through my teeth. Given time, they should be rollin' along here. By the time I'm through with them, they'll be wishing they showed us some respect…" the final Dark Purveyor chortled, his voice as slick as his greasy hair, done up in a pompadour style.

"Damn him… Well, what have you planned for him?" Vlad demanded, crossing his arms in a frustrated manner. As he feared, the young hero was winning.

"Just a little something special. All I need is a good amount of space to rock and roll. As for you, however… Just in case these twerps actually manage to wreck me, I think you had better read some more of the book you brought us out of, friend." the leader said, raising a hand. When he did, an old book appeared in his hand out of thin air. Vlad recognized it. "There's some… interesting information you probably should know about what else the incantation you said does."

"You mean… there's more?" Vlad asked, a little surprised. On one hand, it was nice to know that he could still have one ace up his sleeve in case those obnoxious brats win yet again. But on the other… No. He mustn't think like that. Nobody can establish their own dominion without stepping on a few toes. Or rather, breaking a few necks, he supposed. No turning back now… He took the book from the leather jacket clad warrior. Said warrior grinned darkly.

"When isn't there more, am I right? Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a rumble to prepare for. Be there, be square, doesn't matter which you do today. Either way, rock and roll is here to stay!" he chuckled before disappearing in what seemed to be a sentient wave of darkness. Vlad just stood there, book in one hand, gun in the other, contemplating on what just happened.

There truly was no turning back from this now.

Setting the weapon down, he flipped open the dark book and began reading….

After flying from the Amityville Scorer, Team Phantom landed a few houses away from Fenton Works and started to walk the rest of the way. The six do-gooders looked like they had just come back from major military warfare, if the army let them wear whatever they wanted to, whether it was Ember's makeshift casual wear or Valerie's Huntress armor. For Danny and Ember, the analogy would seem perfect as they took the brunt of Vlad's latest scheme. Danny definitely could stand to change uniforms, as his current hazmat suit had rips and tears all over, revealing his numerous cuts and bruises. Their collective mood was mostly sour, despite their relief at having defeated the 80's-obsessed Josey.

"Man, it's gonna take a while for the city to recover from this, huh?" Tucker asked as he remembered the zombies, the murder victims, the mall's new 'rooftop decoration', and the reports of battered buildings and neighborhoods.

"The cleanup, the paperwork, identifying the deceased, locating and terminating any remaining undead, funerals, possibly memorials, psychiatric therapy and grief counseling for survivors, formally impeaching Vlad if we somehow fail to kick his ass out of town… Yeah, I'd say there's a lot to do, Tuck." Sam answered, noticing a random citizen across the street managing to defeat a lone lost zombie in his panic. The group kept walking, although they were unnerved that some zombies seem to be exploring the town away from the defeated Dark Purveyors' siege points. As if the emergency news bulletins weren't enough to get people to leave town for now…

As they approached the front door of Fenton Works, the loud engine of the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle abruptly roared as the hulking vehicle rounded the street corner, having just came out of its garage. The FFAV skidded to a stop a little ways away from the group and the door opened, revealing a battle-ready Maddie, clad in her usual blue jumpsuit.

"Danny! Oh, thank goodness you're alright! I was just leaving to try and track you and Ember down with these terrible attacks going on. You and Ember weren't caught up in any of that, were you?" Maddie asked as she ran up and gave her son a hug that only a frightened mother could give. Danny cringed as the hug's pressure pressed upon some of his wounds.

"Mom! I'll be fine…! Can you please let me go?" Danny groaned, partially out of pain and partially because Sam and Tucker were snickering a little at the prospect of the town's big superhero being babied by his own mom. Maddie let her son go, but it was at that point when she noticed the condition of his Phantom uniform and, in turn, his body.

"My goodness, you ARE hurt! My poor baby! Here, get in the Assault Vehicle and we can use our built-in infirmary to help you. Jazz and Jack are inside waiting." Maddie said, gently pulling Danny toward the vehicle. To the others, it seemed kind of funny that this was the same woman that wanted to annihilate Phantom before she knew his true identity.

"Alright, Mom, we'll go. We were coming back for treatment anyway… Sigh… Yeah, we got ambushed on the way to breakfast… It's… It's been a long morning…" With that, the six heroes entered the large armored vehicle and Danny proceeded to tell his parents and sister all that transpired. It was during this explanation when Danny revealed to his parents the one ace in the hole he had kept for a special occasion: Vlad's secret identity and his true motives. Truthfully, since he had been accepted by his family, Danny was saving that for if one of Vlad's schemes went public and an opportunity arose to ruin his 'good mayor' reputation and at least force him into hiding. Certain superheroes did have a point about always having a strategy ready for certain people…

Needless to say, Maddie was not happy. "Why that no-good, rat-haired, no-class son of a bitch! Hurt MY family, will he?! Innocent citizens as well?! And all because he won't accept rejection?! Ugh, that's so… immature!" Her grip on Danny's arm, which she had been looking at, tightened exponentially to the point where the halfa grunted in pain and Ember had to try and pry the mother's hand away.

"Wait 'til ya hear that he made his lab's A.I. program look and sound like you, Mom… Very disturbing…" Danny groaned. Maddie's eyes bugged out and her grip slackened.

"You're kidding…" was all the matriarch responded with. She knew Vlad Masters was a bit pretentious and some of his behavior had been questionable at best and completely untrustworthy at worst (such as a certain mother-son trip that Vlad had tricked them into), but Maddie never thought she'd be the target of stalker behavior like this.

"Trust me, I wish I was…" Danny muttered back.

"Uhh… Curious question, but what do you think's worse? Walking in on your parents 'doing it' or finding out that somebody's obsessed with your mom?" Ember asked in an attempt to lighten the mood a little with her blue humor as Jazz examined her slowly-healing wounds. Everyone (except Jack, who was driving) looked at Ember like the diva had grown a second head.

"Honestly? Considering Vlad, I'd say both are equally traumatic. After unleashing this zombie apocalypse, he'd better not go into another rant about taking mom and making me his 'new son'." Danny answered, shuddering at the memory of the arch-villain's arrogant ramblings. It was then that the Assault Vehicle jostled somewhat as, apparently, Jack had just driven right over a pair of zombies.

"This bad guy you mentioned must be near. There seems to be more zombies as we keep going…" Jack announced as he carefully avoided another undead minion. Too many zombie guts was probably not the best thing for a vehicle's wheels or breaks…

"Oh, just mow 'em down, Jack." Maddie commanded, still feeling righteous fury over the complete truth of her former friend. "This is the Assault Vehicle, not our usual car. A few ghouls aren't going to damage it."

"You're still mad, aren't you…?" Jack asked, now trying to turn as many undead into roadkill without deviating from their course. Maddie simply muttered an 'uh huh' as she resumed patching up Danny, a part of her relishing the bumpy ride toward City Hall.

"Uh, Baby-Pop? Remind me never to get your mama mad at me…" Ember said, pretty sure that the Fenton matriarch was mentally picturing what she'd do to ol' Plasmius. Not that she felt sorry for the evil mayor, of course.

"Noted." Danny answered, already starting to feel better. He still had the uncomfortable feeling that the upcoming battle would probably be easier if he at least had one day to rest and recover… But the universe was sometimes quite unkind to superheroes.

The Assault Vehicle slid to a stop in front of City Hall, having just grinded about five zombies into gore-flavored mulch beneath its wheels. Sam and Danielle could tell something was wrong since the last time they were here. There definitely wasn't a strange aura emanating from the building before… Nor was the sky above them covered in a 3-block radius with pitch-black clouds (yet the rest of Amity had normal weather), considerably dimming the lighting of the area… Nor were there a crowd of zombies milling about, as if waiting. Waiting for them…

"Anybody else's bullshit detector go off about now?" Tucker asked, earning himself a slap upside his head and a retort of "Language, young man!" from Mrs. Fenton (despite the fact that she herself had called Vlad a 'son of a bitch' minutes ago).

"Tucker's right, though. I think Vlad penciled us in for an 'appointment'…" Danny said, standing up and testing out his limbs. Thankfully, his mom's treatment helped, the agony he had bulled through up to this point reduced down to some sore muscles that hurt if they were stretched too far. Amazing what the Fentons could invent when they actually want to help ghosts for a change…

A bolt of lightning burst forth overhead, shedding some brief light upon the darkened area. As if Vlad or perhaps this last minion was taunting them, the light revealed something painted in giant letters across the entire front of the building. Just one word….

'**DECAY!**'

"Cheery…" Valerie remarked, cocking her rifle. "Lock and load, people."

"Should we all charge in there?" Danny pondered, suddenly concerned for the growing band of heroes. Considering the four devils he had dealt with all morning, he had reason to worry about those that didn't have superpowers…

"Danny, it's just slow, dimwitted zombies out there and we got each other, our weapons, and our powers. If Vlad or his last guard dog shows himself or themselves, we'll stay out of the way. Promise." Jazz said, arming herself with a Jack-O-Nine-Tails whip. Danny knew that tone his sister used. She wasn't going to take no for an answer. On the bright side, her skill with fighting ghosts had increased quite a bit since that unfortunate time she tried being his sidekick and unwittingly put him in a small losing streak…

Naturally, the Red Huntress didn't wait. Throwing open the hatch, she blasted the first few zombies in front of her before stepping out and activating her hoverboard to take to the air. Naturally, being airborne would make it easy for Valerie to rain death upon the mass of rotting ex-humanity. That was until moments later when a squadron of the flying zombies Danny and Ember had encountered earlier flew in to intercept her…

"No time like the present, I suppose. Everybody ready?" Danny asked the group.

"Hell yeah!" Ember replied, raising her guitar, all cleaned up and ready to smash and slice.

"Ready as we'll ever be, son!" Jack bellowed as he and Maddie locked and loaded their Fenton rifles.

"Totally." Sam answered, somehow finding a chainsaw amongst the Fenton weaponry. She revved it to give an added effect. For some reason, the group didn't question her choice nor how it got there. It just seemed right somehow. Almost… groovy. (1)

"We got your back, Danny." Tucker said, his weapons of choice being a pair of small Fenton energy pistols. Small and easy to handle, just like his PDA…

Dani clung to Sam's back in a full-body hug, taking advantage of her short stature. "And I got Sammy's back. Defense, baby!" the little clone whooped, her nervousness of the army shuffling about having been overridden by sheer adrenaline. Sam's presence might have also had something to do with it…

"Alright then…" Danny turned to face the open hatch, a couple of hungry zombies shuffling toward it. "Hello, misplaced aggression!"

If anybody on Team Phantom ever wanted to know what it felt like to reenact that scene from Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers where the heroes defended Helm's Deep against a massive army of tough evil minions, they certainly seemed to have gotten their wish with this messy brawl, no Desiree needed. Danny and Ember just kept punching, guitar-swinging, and firing ecto-beams at any ghoul that came within an arm's reach, not taking any chances of getting even one scratch or bite. Sam used her chainsaw with surprising skill, cutting down one zombie after another while Dani fires ecto-beams at those Sam wasn't paying attention to.

Tucker put his energy pistols to good use, pressing his way forward as he shot zombie after zombie in the chest and/or head. His aim was pretty good, considering his in-field "practice" from the day's earlier troubles. Jazz was right behind him, occasionally using her whip on any zombie that tried to attack Tucker from the sides whenever she wasn't dealing with attackers of her own. Nearby, the Fenton parents were making their own path through the mass of undead.

Basically, it was the kind of battle where one of an off-kilter mindset would call for a montage. A zombie-killing montage… (2)

But while a lot of things were happening at once, a figure sat near the occupied City Hall. Upon a motorcycle, he did sit. But not just any old motorcycle. No, this one was special, as Team Phantom would soon find out. A few clicks were heard as he adjusted something in the darkness, watching the pathetic lost souls fail to even make a dent in the living scum that plotted against him. A predictable outcome. But the masses did serve one purpose. A tired enemy is a defeated enemy… or something like that.

After what felt like an eternity of watching the curtain-jerkers warm up his audience, it was showtime. With a loud rev of his motorcycle, the last Dark Purveyor launched himself forward…

Danny wasn't sure if the constant noise of zombie groans, the squishy splatter of blood and gore, and energy blasts were messing with his hearing, but for a good ten seconds he could swear he was hearing the roar of a vehicle… Unfortunately for him, his senses weren't playing tricks on him as he caught sight of zombies being rammed and pushed aside by what appeared to be a motorcycle. He reached behind, grabbed onto Ember, and made the both of them intangible at the last second before the bike could run them over as well. The good news was that everyone else that was in the path of the renegade biker managed to evade it as well.

"Danny, did you piss off Johnny 13 recently? Because he totally picked the worst time to crash a party!" Ember complained, smashing the head off another zombie right when she became solid again.

"That bike definitely wasn't his, unless he completely overhauled it. I've gotten to the point where I know his bike anywhere…" Danny answered, also resuming the fight. It was then that the sound of electric guitar added itself to the din of zombie and motorcycle noises. Only Valerie could see for sure that the newcomer was definitely circling around for another pass.

"Huntress to everyone! He's coming around again!" Valerie immediately radioed out, thankful that the team had Fenton Phones equipped. Amazing that somebody could play a guitar and drive a motorcycle at the same time…

The biker's blatant showing off became deadly, however, when he suddenly stopped playing music and adjusted his guitar as if he was aiming the neck at the mess of zombies and the living… The guitar also doubled as a machine gun! The members of Team Phantom rolled aside and stayed low, the spray of bullets and the bike itself only hitting zombies as a result.

"Out of all the things to try and kill us with, they're resorting to normal bullets now?" Tucker quipped, daring to fire a round or two at the biker after he passed him.

"At least it's a new take on the mobster 'tommy gun in a guitar case' gag…" Danny added.

"Anybody bring any cement, then? I say we give this jackass some new 'riverbed footwear'." Sam muttered.

"At this point, that plan would be an offer I couldn't refuse." Tucker said with a slight snicker.

"Whenever you're done mocking the mafia…!" Valerie scolded, her topside view showing that the gun-toting biker had turned around again, but stopped when he faced the scattered-out group of heroes. "Duck!" the Huntress called as the enemy fired his machine gun again. Just like before, the evasive action caused the bullets to either miss or help lower the zombie count some more. Soon enough, the crowd of zombies was thinned out enough to where everyone could clearly see what's going on and who they're dealing with.

The biker was clearly a rebel. The large pompadour hairstyle and all-leather outfit were dead giveaways, were it not for the motorcycle and the black guitar/gun that had spikes all over the bottom of its body, topped with a silver decoration of a devilish skull with horns, just below where the strings began. His skin had the familiar undead-pale shade, but that was the only indicator that he wasn't alive.

"Well now… Doesn't this picture just rock?" the biker snickered. "A decaying empty city, unnatural storm clouds about to unleash hell, zombie parts everywhere, and the ragtag group of defiant weaklings, clinging to their ideals of existence in the face of extinction… Definitely a swingin' party, chumps."

"I take it you're the last jerk we have to beat?" Danny said, fed up already. What is it with villains and monologues anyway?

"Skipping to the chorus, eh? Ugh… Such is your generation lately. No time to appreciate the full scope of the concert, you just want the hook. I gotta tell ya… That's not the best way to impress…" he trailed off to strike his electric guitar, causing a loud chord to bellow out. "… LEWIS LEGEND! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here for all eternity."

"Pfft, don't kid yourself, Louie." Danny spat. "You're probably a one-hit wonder anyway."

"Oh, I have many hits. Allow me to demonstrate!" Lewis growled, suddenly revving up his motorcycle and charging toward Danny and Ember with it, the bike somehow spewing fire from the numerous exhaust pipes, making the bike look like a wide meteor on wheels. As he was driving, he held up his guitar like a club, preparing to swing it at any hero he happened to pass by. Danny and Ember dived away from each other, the charging rocker speeding through the gap where the two heroes were and barreling into a few hapless zombies. Danny felt the intense heat from the exhaust fire as Lewis passed, thankful that those flames didn't shoot outward any further than they do. Ember, of course, was unaffected by the heat, but annoyed nonetheless.

Danny looked back just in time to notice the enemy try to club and/or run over the rest of his friends and family with little luck. (Jazz's pants did catch on fire briefly, but she herself suffered no burns. Jack's massive girth almost prevented him from successfully tumbling aside.)

"We gotta do something before he nails somebody. We can't just dodge that bike forever." Danny stated, dusting himself off and punching another unfortunate zombie's head off. He noticed Lewis circling around for another charge…

"How good are you at shooting at really fast targets?" Ember asked, preparing her guitar.

"I get by… Johnny provided good practice." Danny replied with a smirk, remembering when the shadow-controlling biker would occasionally feud with him.

"Heh. Bikers always seem to get a bad first impression of you, dipstick." quipped the rock diva as Lewis swung his bike in a sharp turn and began his second charge.

"Not my fault they think my law-abiding ways are not just soft but—"

"If you're thinking of being funny and using that popular misspelled version of 'Soft' (3), I'm clubbing you with this guitar after this is done." Ember interrupted, her face scrunched up in a sour expression as she struck a chord and sent a few blasts of energy toward the incoming Lewis. Danny, making sure to keep a distance away so Lewis can't possibly try running them both down at the same time, fired ecto-beams. Some of their attacks managed to hit, but not doing a lot of damage. Ember had to turn intangible as the biker zombie had chosen to try and run her down.

Danny was glad that the others seemed to have gotten the idea of spreading out so that Lewis couldn't attempt to run them all over in one go. After his second pass, Valerie fired at him from above, the flying undead having been dealt with. However, her attacks didn't even cause him to lose his focus on driving. "Dammit! 'Evil Kinevel's a freakin' tank!" the Huntress growled.

Danny then had an idea and radioed back. "Yeah? Well, even fast tanks are useless without one important thing."

"What's that?" Valerie huffed. Danny didn't respond. He waited, watching as Lewis circled around again. There! The sharp turn toward him! The increase in speed… He grinned. Monotony will get one nowhere fast…

"Traction!" the halfa finally answered as he fired a familiar beam of blue energy in Lewis' direction. The beam hit the ground and Danny lowered his aim, the cryokenetic energy freezing the ground until he created a long streak of ice that Lewis couldn't avoid. Lewis skidded and slid, losing control of his bike, the exhaust flames not melting the ice in time to prevent the halfa's plan from working.

"Oh, NOT cool, you squares! Agh!" Lewis grunted, his bike overturning to one side while sliding on the icy path. Danny went intangible and the bike simply slid through him. Lewis had gained enough momentum that he was still sliding on the ground, despite no longer being on the icy trap the sneaky halfa had set. Unfortunately for Team Phantom, he just happened to be sliding right at Sam and Dani.

"SAM! Look out!" Jazz cried in warning, seeing the problem.

Surprisingly, the Goth and the Clone didn't panic. Instead, with a little help from Dani, Sam leaped over the bike, taking the chance to swing her chainsaw at the enemy while she was at it. Her wild slash of the saw managed to cut off some of the exhaust pipes. Sam landed on her feet, chainsaw still revving as the damaged bike eventually skidded to a stop behind them.

"That's… one good chainsaw." Dani remarked, still clinging tightly to her Sam.

"Rrrrraaahhh! You hurt my Ellyphant!" Lewis screamed as he pulled his leg out from underneath his toppled bike and started getting up.

"Uh, your what-now?" said Danny.

Lewis got to his feet and grabbed his bike by the handlebars, pulling up on it until he got it upright again. The motorcycle now only had exhaust pipes on one side. "So… You guys can rock after all. Heh! All you've done is make this gig more fun!" Lewis declared, hopping back onto his bike and flipping a couple of switches.

Immediately, the bike revved up, but instead of accelerating, the bike began to… transform. Lewis, despite being seated, shot upward as his machine began to take on a more vertical form of some sort. The wheels became wheeled feet. Flexible arms sprouted out, one of the 'hands' apparently being a buzzsaw. Two twin curved steel tusks grew out from the front of the bike as it became the machine's "head"/chestplate. Gatling gun turret was placed on the left side of the chestplate head. Lewis Legend completed his vehicle's transformation with a loud battle cry of "ELEPHANT ROCK!".

"What the hell?! Nobody told me we'd be dealing with a mammoth-style Megatron today!" Tucker whined, feeling his own odds of defeating Lewis sinking. The nerd felt vulnerable having his little pistols compared to Lewis having his own mechanical suit full of potential whup-ass.

"Dammit… Once again, Vlad proves he certainly knows how to pick 'em…" grumbled Danny, powering up his fists with ectoplasmic energy.

"Any of you squares feel like buzzing off now? Too bad. The exits to this concert, which were there, there, and there, are conveniently inaccessible by way of me gunning your asses down. I do enjoy a captive audience… so LET'S ROCK!" Lewis declared, just before the mecha-mammoth launched forward, gatling gun blazing and his electric guitar blaring music of questionable quality.

Everyone sprang into action as the destructive machine started a rampage of gunfire and buzzsaws. Unlike its original motorcycle form, the mech moved around somewhat slower. Sadly, all the gunfire and ecto-beams that the Ellyphant was taking a barrage of didn't seem to be doing much of anything to it. A couple of dings and dents here and there. Valerie, however, didn't have the same luck when the machine's saw blade fist managed to land a glancing blow, managing to sever her hoverboard in half and send her crashing to the ground, her suit malfunctioning. Lewis, seeing an opportunity, stomped toward the fallen Huntress.

The metal pachyderm's journey was halted briefly when Tucker stepped in front of the fallen Valerie. "Kicking someone when they're down!? You ain't nothing but a hound dog!" he snapped, firing a couple of rounds toward Lewis' exposed head. The shots only glanced the machine. The nearby Jack easily picked up Valerie and moved her away from the battle so she could try to get her suit functional again.

"Ouch. Elvis puns. I'm so hurt…" Lewis' sarcasm mixing well with his malice as he revved up his sawblade again for another punch. Tucker whipped out his PDA.

"If this can work on Skulker, it'll work on you!" Tucker yelped as he frantically pressed buttons, only stopping enough to dive to the side to avoid the buzzsaw. This battle would be over just like that if he could get control of the Ellyphant. Maybe without the usual 'trip to the zoo' stipulation that Tucker always seemed to forget to take out of his 'Standard Skulker Hack Protocol'…

His PDA blinked off. He tried turning it back on, but got no response. "Baby…? What happened?" he nervously asked his favorite piece of technology. Lewis guffawed.

"Did you seriously try to take over MY Ellyphant with your new-age techno-trash, nerd? I'm from an era where that didn't exist! Hahahaha!" Lewis bragged, his sawblades spinning again.

Danny groaned. "It's like that news article I heard about people setting their phone's date back to a certain year in the past! Lewis totally bricked Tuck's PDA! Talk about being deleted…"

"I think Lewis might be rendered obsolete soon…" Sam remarked with a smirk. While she didn't like seeing one of her best friends' prized possessions rendered useless like that, she and Danny remembered one thing about Tucker and his PDA…

"You… killed my PDA… YOU SONOVA BITCH!" Tucker screamed as loud as possible. He pocketed his dead PDA and ran at Lewis. With a leap, he climbed up over the tusks, out of the way of the gatling gun, and clung to the elephant-head chestplate. With some awkward footing and a few pushes, he got himself up so that he was just about face to face with Lewis, who already had his guitar gun aimed at him.

"Great musicians anticipate the next chords of the song, little dude." Lewis' finger was on the trigger, ready to fire upon savoring the moment with his one-liner. However, he suddenly found a glowing green fist placed next to his head. On the other side of his head was a guitar glowing with pink energy.

"You probably should have seen this one coming then, Louie." Danny replied.

"Let the nerd shoot you in the face or we'll shoot you in the face. Either way…. you're getting shot in the face." Ember said, the irritatingly-smug smirk of hers doing its best to piss off the old-school rocker.

Lewis' response was that his Ellyphant suddenly launched forward, dislodging the ghostly couple from their advantageous position. Just as sudden did the machine stop a few seconds later, sending poor Tucker flying forward, crashing into the two closely-positioned tusks. The tech junkie slid down until he fell through the wider gap between the tusks and hit the ground.

"The fans don't run the show!" Lewis declared, turning his machine around to aim his gatling gun at Danny and Ember, the duo just starting to fly toward him. Tucker barely rolled himself out of the way of the mecha-mammoth's feet during its turnaround. The gatling gun spewed more bullets, the duo of ghosts turning intangible just in time. When the two ghosts got close, Lewis tried swatting them away with his mecha's fist and buzzsaw-hand. But the heroes remained intangible, merely taunting him with hand gestures as they hovered around him.

"What's the matter, Louie? Can't seem to connect with the audience?" Danny quipped, giving him the 'L is for Loser' gesture.

"And he swings… and another miss! And he misses again! Oh look, nothing but air!" Ember teased in a sarcastically-happy tone. "Kinda looks like your love life, chump. You just keep striking out! Haha, can't touch this!" Ember then turned around and bent over, daring him to literally kick her actual ass. The buzzsaw came at her…and went through her, her ass as unharmed as the rest of her.

"Now I'm glad I picked the right time to die… I knew this world was already going to Hell naturally, but for it to produce a generation as annoying as you… It sickens me!" Lewis snarled, enraged by the enemy rubbing their ghostly advantage over the zombie's always-solid existence in his face. Danny and Ember floated away, laughing at Lewis' bad luck. The couple seemed glad that this particular enemy had no way around their intangibility, unlike the others. Lewis, defiant, revved up his Ellyphant and charged forward.

The machine suddenly met incredible resistance after going about two feet, the upper half of the machine pitching forward until it was in a fall that Lewis couldn't stop. The mechanical elephant crashed face-first into the pavement hard enough for everyone on the ground nearby to feel the earth quiver. Lewis was tossed out of his machine upon landing, tumbling on the ground for a moment. His outfit was scuffed and dirty, his pompadour was a wreck, and his face was busted wide open, old blood slowly leaking out. The rocker from another time slowly got to his feet, looking over at his precious vehicle. He was surprised to see something tied to the legs of the machine.

"Holy American Graffiti, Danny…." Ember asked, surprised that one of the oldest gags in the book actually worked.

"It's the Jack O Nine Tails…! Jazz must've tied up its legs when we were busy wearing him out!" Danny exclaimed, immensely proud of the redhead. She's finally coming into her own…

"And look! No wonder she was able to yank him down. She somehow tied the other end to the Fenton Assault Vehicle!" Ember pointed out. It was definitely reminiscent of that old-timey movie she referenced a moment ago with the scene where the punk kids attach a chain to the axel of a cop car…

"With the weight of that thing, yeah, that'll do it alright." Danny smirked, for once glad that his parents actually have something that cumbersomely big and bulky.

Their commentary was interrupted by incoherent growling. Not surprisingly, it was an absolutely enraged Lewis Legend, gun-guitar in hand and the look of a ghoul with nothing to lose on his face. "Nobody… wrecks… my… Ellyphant…. NOBODY!"

He stalked his way toward the hovering couple, the two glaring in response, unafraid. "When I get my hands on you all, you will rue the day you squares trashed my concert…!" Spit and blood flew from his mouth as he raged. Before he could do anything more, a series of clicks was heard from behind. Almost like… guns being cocked?

Turning away from the ghostly couple's smug looks, Lewis came face to faces with all three human Fentons, the Red Huntress, Tucker, Sam, and Dani. The Fentons had ectoplasmic assault rifles, even Jazz had one as backup in case the whip wasn't enough. Tucker had his pistols. Valerie got her suit functioning well enough to access her weaponry again. Little Dani had one fist aimed at him, glowing with power and ready to fire a beam. At that point, Sam revved up her chainsaw again. They were all standing a couple feet from him, his rage having deafened him to their approach.

"This isn't the movies where the greaser outwits the authorities, Louie. How about you do what your friends failed to do and actually surrender? You all had your 'fun'." Danny spat, his own fists ready to blast an ecto-beam or two.

Lewis seemed to realize the situation he was in. "…Outwitted by a bunch of lame-ass squares who won't mean nothin' in twenty years… I suppose there's worse ways to be booed out of a gig…" Lewis sighed, his head slumping in defeat.

Suddenly, he aimed his gun-guitar randomly, picking Sam with a cry of "Rock this!". And that's when everyone fired. Lewis was battered with energy bullets and beams as the firing squad carried out his self-induced death sentence. He dropped his guitar as he was being shot full of holes. Danny managed to quickly grab the dark instrument in the chaos.

"Hey, Em. Let's finish this concert off with a guitar duet." Danny suggested, holding Lewis' guitar like a battle axe.

"Oh, Dipstick. What a lovely idea." Ember replied with a grin, adjusting her hold on her own guitar. When the shots died down, Lewis was somehow still standing. And alive, if the twitching of his arms and fingers were anything to go by. Not to mention the groaning… Danny approached his left side, Ember his right.

"A one… A two…" Danny counted, readying himself.

"A one, two, three, FOUR!" Ember finished. With that, both ghosts swung their guitars toward each other, the meeting point for their collision being Lewis' head. With a mighty "KABONG!" of a thud and a sour musical note, Lewis' head was crushed, the remains being nothing but gore, splattered brain, and greasy hair. …And was that an eyeball…?

"Ugh! MAN, that was messier than I thought it'd be…! Wow! Sorry, Mom, Dad, Jazz…!" Danny said, not expecting this result. Apparently, he thought it might've turned out a little less disgusting and a little more stylish. The idea seemed stylish enough…

Jazz felt the need to hurl, as did Maddie. Jack, however, managed to hold together. "It's ok, son. You… did what you had to do."

"We slaughter zombies by the boatload today and somehow THIS is what gets us…" Tucker groaned, admittedly feeling a little queasy from the sight of the crunched-in head.

"And to think, that's pretty much made of meat." Sam quipped, deciding to bring up a favorite argument between the two.

"Oh, don't you dare use this to start that up again!" the techie snapped, raising his hands in some gesture of aggravation.

"I'm just going to assume that the reason is partly because this Lewis Legend was a sentient zombie with human-like intellect. It's almost like executing a live human, which is a hard thing for any decent person to do. Of course, the other reason is because that's just disgusting…" Jazz theorized, deliberately looking away from the mess.

"Good thing some of us aren't decent people then." answered Ember with a chuckle, unaffected by the sight of Lewis' squashed-in head. Danny groaned, casually firing an ecto-beam at the remains of Lewis' head, setting it ablaze in a green fire. The body finally fell over backward, landing with an unceremonious plop.

Danny silently stormed toward City Hall, determined to make his longtime archenemy pay for who knows how many deaths throughout the day. He had only taken five steps when a yellow vortex appeared in the sky above. Danny kept going with Ember following, but everyone else watched as Lewis' corpse was pulled upward toward the vortex as if caught in a UFO's tractor beam. Despite his head being nothing more than smoldering embers, he somehow made one final statement before disappearing…

"Meus vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto…!"

With that, the corpse was pulled through and the vortex disappeared into nothingness. Out of the whole group, Jazz looked perplexed.

"Why would he say that…?" the redhead asked aloud.

"Who cares? We heard one of those other assholes say that too." Ember scoffed, pausing her stride and turning around to face the others.

"It's just that… Well… That's Latin. If I remember correctly, I think that was something like… 'My life, King, for your evil plan'. Were they talking about how they originally died? Or about now? What King? What plan?" Jazz explained, her extracurricular education coming in handy for once.

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling that we're walking into an even bigger trap…?" Tucker asked, the scenario that they were suddenly presented with sounding so familiar to him with his years of watching movies, playing video games, and being one of Danny's sidekicks in ghost hunting.

"All we need to do is kick Vlad's ass. What more does he have anyway?" was all that Ember could get out before the front doors of City Hall were kicked open from inside before Danny could get there. Out walked the vampire-like ghost form of the very man responsible for all this. In his hands, he carried what looked like an old book.

"What a surprise... You survived. I probably should have known that even supposedly-immortal zombie warriors would fall to you, Little Badger. The daring hero, overcoming all odds to save the day." Vlad Plasmius drawled sarcastically, annoyance made abundantly obvious by his sarcasm. The corrupt mayor surveyed the situation with a turn of the head. "And you brought the family along… Tsk, tsk… Couldn't resist making this a family affair, could you? It matters little. All that does is provide an appropriate audience for your eventual slaughter."

"What, you graduated to full-blown murder, you psycho fruit loop?!" Danny said, firing an ecto-beam at him. As the halfa probably figured anyway, Vlad merely knocked the beam of energy aside with nothing but a backhand.

"At this point? I have nothing more to lose. Not since I read from this book and, later, realized the full consequences of my actions. I give them one job and they turn Amity Park into zombie-infested shambles… I'm no longer sure if most of these zombies currently roaming about were long since dead and brought in from the underworld or our fair citizens turned by the underworld ones. One silver lining is that the police's order of evacuation was relatively successful, give or take a few stragglers. The benefits of living in a town where attacks from superpowered beings are a casual occurrence. I'm not completely heartless, you know. Just…. picky about who I want to remain living." At this point, Vlad's eyes narrowed and he opened his book, which began to glow a dark purple. "And you lot are not on that particular list! Not even you, Maddie, my dear. Hard-to-get is only sexy for so long before the chase becomes borderline pointless."

"Oh God, shut up! Even when you're quitting the obsession, you're still making me want to vomit!" yelled Danny, firing another ecto-beam. This time, the ecto-energy harmlessly bounced off of Vlad, the dark book somehow providing a sort of protective aura around Plasmius. The evil halfa sneered.

"Me, in bed, with your mom!" chortled Vlad.

"NOT HEARING IT!" Danny, Dani, and Jazz shouted in unison, hands covering their ears as they try to keep the mental picture from forming in their heads. The others scowled, readying their weapons.

"Ah, the simple joys in life…" Vlad mused to himself. "Moving on. I bet this is where you think your story reaches a happy conclusion. You get mad, we fight, you lot outnumber me and send me to the Emergency Room, followed by a long stay in Amity Penitentiary while you resume your pointless lives, ever the conquering heroes of glory. A nice dream… It's just too bad that you've all merely been puppets for my own amusement." Vlad began to hover in midair, rising up slowly as the dark aura began glowing a little brighter.

"As if. Knowing your lying ass, that's just another bluff." Ember scoffed, readying her guitar.

"You can't really blame us for thinking that, Vlad. Your entire M.O., from what we gather from our previous encounters, has usually been that of deception. Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on you." Jazz pointed out, her brainy tone put to good use of annoying someone other than her brother.

"Uhh… Yeah! What they said!" Jack bellowed, clearly having believed his former old pal, Vladdy. Maddie took a second to facepalm herself.

"Nice to see you're cautious…" Vlad remarked, unamused before his vicious grin returned. "But I'm afraid you're quite up a river this time. The river Styx, that is. You see, the warriors that I've set upon Amity Park were meant to be destroyed. For upon the destruction of all five of these chosen warriors by a chosen pawn, the ultimate being of destruction shall arise to finally take care of the biggest thorn in my side since the NFL refusing to let me buy my dear Packers! And you, Little Badger, are the foolish pawn, dancing to the beat of my drum under the guise of saving humanity." Vlad's ascension stopped near the roof of City Hall as the dark clouds around the area started to swirl into something like a vortex.

"Zed, Vikke, Mariska, Josey, and Lewis Legend were the warriors…" Vlad recalled, five different-colored orbs appearing, one at a time as each name was called. "And now that the prophecy has been fulfilled…" Plasmius lifted the open book toward the vortex, as if invoking. "Arise, whatever dark being you are! Arise and do my bidding! ARISE AND DESTROY DANNY PHANTOM!" he called to the vortex before bursting out into insane laughter. Lightning began to strike out from the swirling clouds. The wind picked up. The sheer amount of butchered zombie parts that practically layered the ground around the front courtyard were blown away and up into the vortex. Oddly enough, nothing else was affected by the wind…

Before any of the heroes could do anything, the five orbs that were apparently the leftover essences of the Dark Purveyors, converged upon Vlad, whose laughter was immediately cut short. "Hey! What's the big idea?! Get off of me, you dead fools! You're supposed to be bringing my weapon here! Wha?!" Plasmius' indignant rant came to an end as the orbs rose upward, bringing Vlad with him up to the glowing vortex.

"OH BUTTER BISCUIIIIIITSSSSS!" was the last thing that Team Phantom heard before the orbs and Vlad disappeared into the vortex.

And then, everything stopped. Everything. The swirling of the clouds, the lightning, the wind, even the noise involved. All of it.

"Anybody else guess that Vlad's sorcery would betray him?" Valerie mused aloud. The grim situation at hand kept her from smirking in satisfaction at seeing her former 'employer' get his just comeuppance.

"Well, that's what he gets for dabbling in the dark arts, dear." Maddie said, comically nonchalant as if she were merely talking about the weather.

"Did it backfire….? Please tell me his plan backfired!" Tucker whined, already dreading what was to come after having been proven correct about the group walking into a trap.

"Tucker, don't jinx it!" chided Sam.

"Yeah! We better hope it's not a—" Dani was interrupted by what sounded like a loud, guttural growl, coming from the vortex. "…dramatic pause…!" the clingy little clone whimpered, burying her face into Sam's back and making herself look more like a human backpack than ever.

"Are you kidding?! There's ALWAYS a dramatic pause before things like this!" Tucker screamed as the unnatural noise started to grow louder and the vortex started to quiver. Something was about to come through it…

The writhing vortex became more and more unstable by the second until it suddenly shattered like glass in a burst of dark purple energy, the sky returning to a dreary but normal grey of clouds. But the sky was barely noticeable compared to what took the vortex's place, falling rapidly to Earth and immediately crushing City Hall upon landing. The force of the landing sent Danny and Ember flying back, tumbling to the ground and rejoining the others, who protected themselves from flying debris the best they could.

It was massive, not unlike the giants of fairy tales or the Megazords of Power Rangers fame. It was also clearly undead, judging from the rotting flesh and the barely tolerable stench of death. But, when it finally stood up to its full height, what stood out was the being's look…

"You mean to tell me… that Mayor Vampire-Wannabe's ultimate weapon is a giant Elvis!? The hell is this shit?!" Ember shrieked, more indignant than terrified.

"I…. AM…. KILLABILLY!" the giant bellowed in a pained, loud, echoing voice. "UH-HUH-HUH! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Indeed, the world's largest zombie did resemble the famed musical King from decades ago. If the vintage outfit and shades didn't give it away, the giant's pompadour hairstyle sure did. And his girth was also reminiscent of how the legendary musician might have let himself go in his later years... or a joke against the idea of fat Elvis impersonators. Considering the situation, none of the heroes really cared at the moment.

"Uh, Maddie? We don't have any experience fighting giant ghosts, do we…?" Jack asked, feeling incredibly small for the first time in his XXXL-sized life.

The Fenton matriarch gulped. "No, dear… Nothing this huge."

"Uh, Clockwork? If you can hear me, now would be a real good time to show up and, I dunno, correct this timeline!" Danny called out, not having the slightest clue of how to even make a dent in Killabilly without the fight at least flattening a chunk of the city.

Meanwhile…

"I am sorry, my apprentice. I'm afraid this is the correct path of history." Clockwork said aloud to himself as he watched the conflict from his ancient lair. He sighed as he shifted forms to his elderly self. He knew the Observants had it in for him for not being completely impartial to everything as they believe a deity of time should, but he didn't care. As long as the timeline was correct, Clockwork didn't think it was such a bad thing to root for the young hero.

Unfortunately for his own sanity, he wasn't alone this hour…

"Yeah! Besides, we got ourselves a final boss fight here. It's like a free pay-per-view! Woooo! Ain't that right, sugar-tits!?" bragged one Wade Wilson, better known as Deadpool. "Damn right, I'm Deadpool, Mr. Author!"

"Yes, my dear Wade." Death answered, a smile upon her heavily-tattooed face as her black cloak billowed around her. "It is rather unfortunate that so many innocent souls had to perish this day, but I cannot deny that it satisfies my hunger."

"Aw, you're always hungry. Bet'cha that giant hunka-hunka burning zombie there is ripe full of rotten souls to munch on. Almost like a giant chimichanga! Hey, Clock Guy! Can ya conjure up a giant chimichanga? Now I want one…" Deadpool yapped, like a hyperactive kid.

"I control Time, not Reality, Mr. Deadpool…" Clockwork groused. Why his fellow powerful deity had to bring her alleged 'boyfriend' along was beyond him. He could be so aggravating… And she could do a lot better, in his opinion.

"Hey, I read that, Clockwork! And stop with the Mister stuff! Makes me feel like my dad or something." Deadpool grumped, sitting down on a director's chair that had somehow popped up out of nowhere.

"I suppose you're here because of your previous interaction with my apprentice and the situation he's found himself in?" Clockwork asked Death, pointedly ignoring her insane lover.

"Yes. I do fear that I may have an entire world in my grasp if young Danny and his lady friend fail. The five corrupt souls your apprentice has unwittingly sent to me were tasty, but I recognized these souls from somewhere before… And then, the souls were gone again. I came to your dominion to observe and, alas, my suspicions were correct. Also… as Wade pointed out, this conflict can provide some entertainment. I was growing bored anyway with no one to talk to."

"Hey, I'm here, ain't I?" Deadpool griped.

"Not all the time, my dear immortal Deadpool…" Death quipped back, pointing out the fact that the two cannot be together all the time due to Deadpool being pretty much unable to die. And he had his own life to live. Missions to do, enemies to kill, other women to bang… "Got that right." Deadpool chuckled. Death wasn't sure how to take that, believing that Deadpool was talking to her.

"Let us observe then…" Clockwork answered, his growing annoyance toward the mercenary in red put on hold for more important matters…

Back in Amity Park….

"Nothing… Either Clocky didn't hear ya or this is how history's supposed to go!" Ember said after a few moments of waiting as Killabilly took a look around to get his bearings and decide what to do.

"That shouldn't be surprising. If Clockwork stepped in every time something went horribly wrong, we probably wouldn't even have such a thing as World Wars or other tragic events." Jazz theorized, slowly backing up as she really didn't want to get stepped on.

"Shit. And us with no giant of our own to fight with…" Danny grumbled, preparing whatever remained of his power for yet another battle.

"PAAAACKERRRRS! GIVE ME PAAACKERRRS!" Killabilly bellowed randomly.

"That freak definitely inherited some of Vlad's personality…" Sam said with a roll of her eyes, revving up her chainsaw again. She wasn't too sure how much her weapon could do against something of that size, but it had to be better than being completely unarmed…

Killabilly lifted one of its gigantic feet and took a step forward, covering a lot of ground. Fortunately, it didn't step on any of the heroes. But unfortunately, that was because it decided to head toward the downtown area. The way things were going, those that managed to evacuate won't have a city to come back to. And as for those that are still around…. Danny's hero complex didn't want to even think about it.

"TIME FOR THE…. PACKER-HOUSE ROCK…!" yowled the oversized Elvis demon, not unlike a bumbling oaf slurring words as it took another step toward downtown Amity. As if things couldn't get any worse, Killabilly suddenly shot powerful laser beams from his shades, not particularly aiming at anything. The large beams of red energy cut through a couple of the taller buildings downtown, sending them crumbling to the ground. "UH-HUH-HUH!"

Amid the exclamations of shock and horror from the others at the sudden display of power, Danny couldn't help but sum the situation up in one thought…

'After all the dangerous situations I've ever been through… I'm going to be killed by Elvis? Ain't that a shame….'

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Well, that's that. All five Dark Purveyors defeated and all we got was a giant zombie Elvis. Now the question that even I have to figure out is how Team Phantom can defeat the giant known as Killabilly. Do I have them go all Shadow Of The Colossus on it and have to climb up the behemoth to try and find a weak spot? Try and play out how the actual boss fight in Lollipop Chainsaw goes? Have Danny and Ember try the ol' "Freeze and Shatter" tactic, freeze the enemy and then shatter him into ice cubes? I'm gonna have a bit of a challenge on this one.

Also, I hope you guys like that I decided to give Deadpool and Death another cameo. Thought this story could use a little more 4th-wall-breaking antics.

Reference Footnotes: 1) Of course, the chainsaw is mostly a direct reference to the fact that Lollipop Chainsaw's main character, Juliet, uses a chainsaw as her main hack-n-slash weapon. But I couldn't help but throw in a hint of Evil Dead somewhere as well. LC and Evil Dead, two of the best uses of chainsaws as weapons!

2) I dare you to imagine a zombie battle like this with the South Park "Montage" song playing in the background. "We're gonna need a montage! A sports-training montaaaaage!"

3) Fans of current WWE will know that I'm referring to S-A-W-F-T ("SAAAWWWFT!"). Blame Enzo Amore for that one.

**Reader Review Replies:** Hmm… Not much in the mailbag today, but it'll do.

Invader Johnny – Well, Tucker is indeed the techie of the group that would probably appreciate Transformers more than Danny, but on the other hand, Danny would be the "Optimus Prime" of the group, as they're both leaders.

ARega1s – Glad you're digging the story, dude. I still hope you decide to give Lollipop Chainsaw a chance. Such a fun game… Anyways, here's the final boss. And then the REAL final boss! Lol. You wondered, I delivered.

Next time: Feel like Nothing But A Hellhound Dog as we take a trip to the Bone-Break Hotel!


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